Urea breath test

The 13C-urea breath test is a breathing gas test for diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori.

Implementation

For the test, the patient is administered urea, which is labeled with a carbon isotope 13C. Directly in front of the urea dose and 30 minutes after a sample of the exhaled air is taken in each case. In addition, the patient is given just prior to administration of the urea solution, an acidic beverage to close the pylorus and thus to ensure that the urea test solution as long as possible remains in the stomach. If the patient is infected with Helicobacter pylori, the bacteria cleave the urea in the stomach wall, inter alia, carbon dioxide ( CO2). This is exhaled and determined the proportion of 13CO2 total CO2 before and after urea administration with an infrared spectrometer.