A comparison between touch cytology and histology method in diagnosing Helicobacter pylori infection

Touch cytology is one of the sensitive ways of diagnosing Helicobacter pylori in stomach biopsies. The current study was designed to compare touch cytology with histology method in the diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection.

This study was performed on 150 dyspeptic patients undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in Kashan Shahid Beheshti Hospital. Antrum samples (2-4) were taken from each of 150 patients. One biopsy sample was considered for touch cytology and the remaining biopsy samples were studied for histological examination.

Eighty-three out of 150 patients (55.3%) were men with the mean age of 46.63±5.93 years. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value in the touch cytology method were 95.65%, 100%, 100% and 66%, respectively, while in the histology method they were 84.78%, 100%, 100% and 36.36%, respectively. The sensitivity of the touch cytology was more than that of the histology method (P<0.001) in the diagnosis of H. pylori.

Since the cytology method is more sensitive with equal specificities in relation to histology method, when the histological information is not necessary, the cytology method can be considered more reliable for diagnosing Helicobacter pylori.