Helicobacter Forums

Hello everyone,
last year I got diagnosed with HP after an endoscopy. Then I got treated with the Quadruple Therapy.
Last week I had the C13 breath test and it came back negative.
In the C13 testing however, I had no orange or apple juice to drink. It was just water mixed with the substrate.
Is it necessary to have the juice to get an exact result?
Thanks in advance!

the juice is to lower the pH in your stomach to "turn on" the H. pylori enzymes.
It's not necessary to have it if your acid level is good.
it'll be helpful to know how negative is your negative result.
usually 4% is the cut off for C13. if your result is 1% or lower, then it is most likely true negative. But if your result was 3.5%, then it can be suspicious.

Thanks Helico_expert!

I believe my acid levels were good as I experience a burning sensation since I cut out the PPI for the test 3,5 weeks ago. Can this be an indicator for a normal acid level?

In the medical report it only says „negative“.

I talked to the doctor and lab, and they say that this specific C13 breath test does not require to drink juice.

I have also asked to provide the real result of my C13 breath test.

The doctor/lab now says that this specific C13 breath test only provides a positive or negative result. No exact numbers.

Is that possible?

I asked them to investigate further.

the principle for C13 and C14 is the same.
So juice would work the same for both of them.

to avoid mistake and confusion, some manufacturers only provide positive or negative result.
So nobody argues if they get a borderline result.
I think that is not very professional. Especially patients nowadays are getting smarter and smarter.

I finally got the result of the real negative: -0,6

In the footer text they say that it is negative up to 5, and positive as of 5.

The only confusing is why it says -0,6. This cannot be a negative figure, am I right?

It looks like they quickly typed the number on the initial medical report and just made a mistake with the „-“.

I asked the lab to double check.

How C13 breath test work is that you need to first measure your baseline level. Then you take the pill and see if more C13 is generated. if yes, then your second breath will contain much higher C13 level. If no, then lower.

So they used the number from the second breath and subtract the first. Usually we would convert any negative value to 0 as it doesnt make sense to have lower C13 breath than your baseline.

Nevertheless, it's good to know you have no elevation of C13. Therefore you are free of HP now.