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COVID-19 Update

Healthcare institutions and laboratories are encouraged to exercise and continue to practice appropriate clinical precautions when handling breath samples from patients. These groups should refer to their own policies on how to handle its COVID-19 response and should respond appropriately as the COVID-19 situation applies to and impacts its breath testing in its facilities.

Judgement on whether or not to test a patient using the BreathTek® UBT for H. pylori Kit should continue to be made by the patient’s prescribing physician and in collaboration with local testing laboratories on an individual patient basis.

While the COVID-19 situation continues to be dynamic, Otsuka sources the components of the BreathTek® UBT in the United States and currently does not foresee disruptions to its supply.

April 202005US20EBP0007

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Guidelines

H. pylori—testing and treatment consensus

BreathTek UBT aligns with guideline recommendations from ACG, AAFP,  and Maastricht V/Florence Consensus Report to test for H. pylori in patients with uninvestigated  dyspepsia.1-3

Abbreviations: ACG, American College of Gastroenterology; AAFP, American Academy of Family Physicians.

ACG guidelines recommend a test-and-treat strategy and also recommend to confirm eradication testing of H. pylori infection using UBT, fecal antigen test, and endoscopy methods.

  • Test to detect the underlying cause of the condition
  • Treat the patient if infection is detected
  • Test again to confirm eradication at least 4 weeks after completing treatment

H. pylori testing should be performed by a test of active infection, such as 13C-urea breath test or stool antigen test (non-endoscopic tests).4

The test-and-treat strategy is recommended for patients who are under the age of 60 years and have no "alarm features."

  • Alarm features include bleeding, anemia, early satiety, unexplained weight loss, progressive dysphagia, odynophagia, recurrent vomiting, family history of GI cancer, and previous esophagogastric malignancy2
References
  • Ables AZ, Simon I, Melton ER. Update on Helicobacter pylori treatment. Am Fam Physician. 2007;75(3):351-358.
  • Chey WD, Leontiadis GI, Howden CW, Moss SF. ACG clinical guideline: treatment of helicobacter pylori infection. Am J Gastroenterol. 2017;112(2):212-238. https://acgcdn.gi.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/ACG-H.-pylori-Guideline-Summary.pdf. Accessed October 1, 2019.
  • Malfertheiner P, Megraud F, O’Morain CA, et al; European Helicobacter Study Group. Management of Helicobacter pylori infection—the Maastricht V/Florence Consensus Report. Gut. 2016;0:1-25. doi:10.1136/gutjnl-2016-312288.
  • Talley NJ; American Gastroenterological Association. American Gastroenterological Association medical position statement: evaluation of dyspepsia. Gastroenterology. 2005;129(5):1753-1755.