Patient's question:
Yesterday, I had a gastroscopy examination for superficial gastritis (hemorrhagic) and a slight duodenal ulcer. The result was positive for HP. After taking medication for 2 weeks, do I still need to have a gastroscopy for a re-examination of HP?Doctor's answer:
For checking HP, there's no need to do an endoscopy. A carbon-14 breath test is sufficient, and it can detect it. HP produces highly active urease. When a patient consumes carbon-14 labeled urea, if the patient's stomach has HP infection, the urease in the stomach can break down urea into ammonia and carbon-14 labeled CO2. The carbon-14 labeled CO2 is excreted through the breath via the bloodstream. By collecting the exhaled gas at regular intervals and measuring the amount of carbon-14 labeled CO2 in the breath, it can be determined whether the patient has Helicobacter pylori infection.