Detection of Helicobacter pylori and clarithromycin resistant mutations on microarray platform

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Helicobacter pylori is a class I carcinogen which is alarming given that roughly 50% of the entire world’s population is infected by this organism. H. pylori is associated with pathogenic effect to the gastric mucosa leads to different diseases such as gastritis, duodenal ulcers and gastric cancer. When upper endoscopy is undertaken in patients with dyspepsia, gastric biopsies should be taken to evaluate for H. pylori infection. Infected patients should be offered eradication therapy. The eradication therapy involves the use of a combination of antibiotics, such as amoxicillin, metronidazole, clarithromycin, combined with proton pump inhibitors; however, antibiotic resistance is a major problem for treatment failure. The gold standard diagnostic procedure for H. pylori is to detect the H. pylori by culture the bacteria including antimicrobial susceptibility. This test takes a minimum of 5 days to determine antibiotic resistance. Other methods such as the helicobacter-urease assay from gastric biopsies, and antigen testing from stool or breath tests have low sensitivity for detection of H. pylori.