Effect of blood on rapid urease testing of gastric mucosal biopsy specimens

Background: The effect of blood on rapid urease tests is uncertain. We assessed the effect of soaking gastric biopsy specimens in blood on the results of both agar gel (CLOtest) and strip (Pyloritek) rapid urease tests. Methods: One hundred patients undergoing endoscopy had four adjacent biopsy specimens taken from normal appearing mucosa in the antrum. Two biopsies were soaked in blood for 1 minute; one specimen was placed on a CLOtest and one on a Pyloritek. The other two biopsy specimens were placed on CLOtest and Pyloritek without soaking in blood. The same process was performed with four adjacent biopsy specimens from the gastric body. CLOtests were read at 1, 4, and 24 hours; Pyloritek results were read at 1 hour. Results: The number of positive tests for the blood-soaked and standard biopsy specimens were comparable at all times for both rapid urease tests. Discordant results between the blood-soaked and standard specimens were seen in 17 of 400 test comparisons (4%): in 8 of these only the blood-soaked specimen was positive, and in 9 only the standard specimen was positive. Conclusions: "Contamination" of biopsy specimens with blood does not alter rapid urease test results.