Performances of Four Helicobacter pylori Serological Detection Kits Using Stool Antigen Test as Gold Standard

The aim was to determine the performances of four Helicobacter pylori serological detection kits in different target groups, using Amplified IDEIA(™) Hp StAR(™) as gold standard. Kits studied were Rapid Immunochromatoghraphic Hexagon, Helicoblot 2.1, an EIA IgG kit and EIA IgA kit. Methods: Stool and blood samples were collected from 162 apparently healthy participants (control) and 60 Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. Results: The performances of the four serological detection kits were found to be affected by gender, age, health status and ethnicity of the participants. In the control group, the Helicoblot 2.1 kit had the best performance (AUC = 0.85; p<0.05, accuracy = 86.4%), followed by EIA IgG (AUC = 0.75; p<0.05, accuracy = 75.2%). The Rapid Hexagon and EIA IgA kits had relatively poor performances. In the T2DM subgroup, the kits H2.1 and EIA IgG had best performances, with accuracies of 96.5% and 93.1% respectively. The performance of EIA IgG improved with adjustment of its cut-off value. Conclusion: The performances of the detection kits were affected by various factors which should be taken into consideration.