Helicobacter Forums

yup. you can stop the herbs and attend the appointment. Hopefully they'll find something useful about your condition.

Hello. My endoscopy showed small antral erosion with some blood in fundus... waiting for pathology results. I'm only 26 and I know it is likely related to h pylori.. I'm staying on my natural protocol while I wait and then decide based on those results what my next steps will be. My questions are, since my IgG is negative, if this biopsy comes back positive is it more likely the infection is more acute? I'm worried about past antibiotic exposure since I have been on quite a few in my life... and my GI map levels weren't high enough to get antibiotic susceptibility tested apparently. What would be the combination option you'd recommend I ask my DR. for since I've had respiratory infections in the past, strep, UTIS, BV, and more. I am thinking either high dose dual therapy (amox and PPI) but I don't know if they offer that option here in Canada, or a rifabutin combo. I've been exposed to levofloxacin, metro and I tried bismuth quad therapy for 1.5 days but got violently ill as I explained before.

I'll be surprise if you are H. pylori positive from histology.
Nevertheless, if you are indeed positive of H. pylori, it doesnt mean it is more acute. It probably means that you got a special H. pylori strain that the antibody test failed to pick up.

If you are indeed positive of H. pylori, your next treatment can be
high dose PPI (eg. rabeprazole)
high dose Amoxicillin (H. pylori rarely become resistant to this)
high dose bismuth (H. pylori never become resistant to this)

and one more antibiotic that you had never tried. eg. Rifabutin or Furazolidone.

Tetracycline, personally, I think it doesnt work well with Amoxicillin. But it works well with Metronidazole. So you can also try PPI + Bismuth + Tet + Met

thank you, your last recommendation is the regime that made me very sick though after 1.5 days! Why would you be surprised if histology came back positive? Isn't most cases of antral gastritis, ulcers or erosions associated with h pylori, especially in younger people?

I also am thinking if it is the case that my immune system is weakened and thats why I didn't develop antibodies etc. I did have severe food poisioning when I was 12 for one week, and on vacations growing up I got travellers diarrhea but I wouldn't know how to pinpoint this. I wish I could've asked for antibiotic suscetibility testing and maybe I will pay for a stool test for that before deciding next steps, if histology shows positive. My gi map stool test showed low positive, that's another hint in my opinion, when we add all the facts/collected information together . I will let you know when I find out anything else.

Helico_expert wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 1:57 pm a few members have asked about GI-MAP before. Unfortunately it is not a recommended diagnostic test for H. pylori. They screen for the presence of Helicobacter DNA. I am not sure how specific their testing is. They may pick up some other Helicobacter closely related species DNA. Hence, the low quantity probably due to the "mis matching".

Stool antigen test is meant to be accurate. However, it can fail if you have low bacteria load. Breath test would be the alternative, but then again, will rely on high bacterial load.

So, I would recommend you to wait for two-four weeks, repeat stool or breath test. and this time, try to get the laboratory to give you an exact test value. Not just +ve or -ve. I think it's important to know how negative is negative. for example, if the cut-off value is 50, and your result was 49. then the negative result is very suspicious. If your result was 1 (or any value below 10), then I think it's a strong negative and is trustworthy.

Should I ask for the exact test value once I get my stool antigen test? One time, I swear it said negative until I almost had another ulcer two years later.
Becuase I'm worried If it says negative, it may be low enough in bacteria, but enough to grow back. I feel like this is never ending and such a rarity not enough studies are done (many are done, but it's still very new)
I wait three more weeks until I test. How would I even go about asking for an exact test value? I have a feeling they wouldn't understand why I'm asking or not tell me.

by noonanas » Wed Jul 29, 2020 10:54 pm

thank you, your last recommendation is the regime that made me very sick though after 1.5 days! Why would you be surprised if histology came back positive? Isn't most cases of antral gastritis, ulcers or erosions associated with h pylori, especially in younger people?

Because blood test is almost always accurate for negative result. Very rare for blood test not to pick up H. pylori antibody if you are indeed carrier of H. pylori. Unless you have a very special strain that the conventional antibody is not being picked up.

anyway, keep us posted what's going on later.

How would I even go about asking for an exact test value? I have a feeling they wouldn't understand why I'm asking or not tell me.

some lab technician doesnt even know the number. Some machines were designed to only give positive and negative because too much detail sometimes confused the staff and doctors. A good doctor or lab technician would want to know the exact value.

Hey! Do you have an update with your h pylori scope results?