Diagnostic Testing Accuracy for Helicobacter pylori Infection among Adult Patients with Dyspepsia in Cuba's Primary Care Setting

Evidence of the effectiveness of the tests used to diagnose ( ) in primary healthcare is limited. This cross-sectional study aims to assess the accuracy of tests used for to diagnose infection in primary care patients and its relationship with gastroduodenal pathologies. Over 12 months, 173 primary care patients with dyspeptic symptoms were referred for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy to obtain gastric biopsies, and venous blood was extracted from them. infection was detected using a rapid urease test (RUT), real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), -IgG ELISA, and Western blot (WB). The culture and histological findings were used as the reference standard for infection. prevalence was 50%. There were no significant differences between men and women overall or by age group. The presence of was associated with chronic moderate gastritis and its absence with chronic inactive gastritis, as well as the combination of gastritis and gastric lesions ( 0.05). RUT and ELISA -IgG tests showed the highest overall performance (accuracy 98.9% and 84.4%), followed by WB and RT-PCR (accuracy 79.3% and 73.9%). These findings support the notion that combined invasive and noninvasive methods, such as RUT and -IgG ELISA, can be a primary diagnostic screening tool for detecting among adult dyspeptic patients in Cuba's primary care setting.