Helicobacter Forums

Good morning everyone,

I just stumbled upon this forum after making a lot of searches on Google.

I'm a 29 year old guy from Pakistan who for the past 10-11 years has had issues with his gut.

Recently, those symptoms started to get worse so my doctor suggested an H. Pylori blood test.

I read about the test and found out that it isn't as accurate as a breath test or a stool test, so I decided to also get a stool test done on my own.

When the reports came in, my blood test showed a positive result with the result being 3.32 U/ml whereas the stool test showed a negative test result. I'm not sure if this information is relevant but the methodology used in the stool test was Immunochromatographic assay (ICT).

The last time I took a PPI was around 2-3 weeks before the test so it couldn't have impacted the stool test result.

My doctor is still suggesting that I should take the antibiotics course for the next 14 days however I don't want to put antibiotics in my body needlessly.

I was wondering if I could get some expert opinion on this forum, that would be much appreciated.

Please note that breath test isn't available in my country.

TIA

interesting..
well, a blood test tells you that if you had been exposed to H. pylori. Not necessary that you have H. pylori now.

The stool test (or breath test) will tell you if you had H. pylori now. Knowing that you got a negative stool test, this suggest that you have no H. pylori now.

if you dont want to expose yourself to unnecessary antibiotics, then you can wait for another 2 weeks and get another stool test (or breath test) done.

meanwhile, you can find out what is the cut off value for the blood test and stool test. It would be good to know if you are having borderline positive in blood test or borderline negative in stool test.

if you are really unwell, you can try take some ranitidine (or any H2 blockers) and see if that helps. ranitidine will not interfere with the stool test result.