Begoña Glez Suarez

𝘏. 𝘱𝘺𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘪 infection is an infectious disease, and treatment regimens should ideally be guided by antimicrobial-susceptibility testing whenever possible. 🔗 nej.md/4Bj3O58 Both phenotypic (culture-based) and molecular methods of antimicrobial-susceptibility testing are available (seen in figure). Culture-based testing remains the reference standard because it is the only method that can ascertain the susceptibility of isolates to all antibiotics commonly used for eradication. Molecular antimicrobial-susceptibility testing offers greater efficiency than culture-based testing by eliminating the need for 𝘏. 𝘱𝘺𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘪 culture. Molecular-based testing can be conducted with fresh or formalin-fixed gastric-tissue samples (used for histopathological examination) and successfully cultured isolates. More recently, gastric-fluid samples obtained from a swallowed gastric string have emerged as a cost-effective alternative culture-based testing method. Stool-based molecular antimicrobial-susceptibility testing is now available, which avoids invasive endoscopy. Commercial polymerase-chain-reaction–based kits are now available for identifying 𝘏. 𝘱𝘺𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘪 resistance to clarithromycin and levofloxacin by detecting specific mutations in the 𝘏. 𝘱𝘺𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘪 23S ribosomal RNA and gyrA genes, respectively. A meta-analysis reported high accuracy of these molecular methods for detecting antibiotic resistance in gastric-biopsy samples, with sensitivity and specificity of 96% and 96%, respectively, for clarithromycin resistance and 97% and 99% for quinolone resistance. Learn more in the Review Article “𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘺𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘪 Infection — Advances, Challenges, and the Road Ahead” by Hong Li, MD, PhD, Francis Megraud, MD, and Barry J. Marshall, MD: nej.md/4Bj3O58