Development of serological assays to identifyHelicobacter suisandHelicobacter pyloriinfections

SUMMARY Helicobacter suis hosted by hogs is the most prevalent gastric non- Helicobacter pylori Helicobacter species found in humans. Recent studies suggest that the H. suis infection has already induced many cases of gastric disease. However, the infection period and route of H. suis from hogs remain unclear. Because diagnostic methods based on the urease activity of H. suis often yield negative judgments, there is no reliable method for diagnosing H. suis infection in clinical practice without gastric biopsy specimens. We developed the world’s first ELISA to simultaneously diagnose H. suis and H. pylori infection in a single test. The area under the ROC curve was 0.9648 or 0.9200 for identifying H. suis or H. pylori infection, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for identifying H. suis infection were 100%, 92.6%, 76.9%, and 100%, and those for identifying H. pylori infection were 88.2%, 87.5%, 65.2%, and 96.6%, respectively. (150 words)