Ordering Guidance

Confirmation of eradication testing should not be ordered until 4 or more weeks after cessation of treatment.

Specimen Required

The high sensitivity of amplification by polymerase chain reaction requires the specimen to be processed in an environment in which contamination of the specimen by Helicobacter pylori DNA is unlikely.

Patient Preparation:

1. For 4 weeks prior to testing, patient should not take antibiotics.

2. For 2 weeks prior to testing, patient should not take proton pump inhibitors or bismuth compounds.

Supplies: Culture and Sensitivity Stool Transport Vial (T058)

Specimen Type: Preserved feces

Submission Container/Tube: Commercially available transport system specific for recovery of enteric pathogens from fecal specimens (15 mL of nonnutritive transport medium containing phenol red as a pH indicator, either Cary-Blair or Para-Pak C and S)

Specimen Volume: 5 mL

Collection Instructions:

1. Collect fresh fecal specimen and submit 1 gram or 5 mL in container with transport medium.

2. Place feces in preservative within 2 hours of collection.

3. Place vial in a sealed plastic bag and send ambient or refrigerated. Specimens sent frozen will be rejected.