Fresh faecal sample, a minimum of 2g
Freeze and send frozen
H. pylori is a micro-aerophilic, spirally-shaped, gram-negative bacterium with unipolar flagella, requiring carbon dioxide and a rich growth media. It lives on the human gastric mucosa, and colonization stops abruptly where gastric mucosa ends. H . pylori causes chronic gastritis, duodenal and stomach ulcers, and is associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer. Transmission is by ingestion, such as via the faecal-oral route. Once colonization in the stomach is established, H. pylori will usually persist indefinitely unless antimicrobial therapy is given. Its elimination allows healing of ulcers without recurrence.
H. pylori colonizes the stomach by the use of its flagella to burrow through the mucus to reach the stomach epithelial cell layer. In addition, urease, produced by H. pylori , is important for its survival in the harsh acidic environment in the stomach as urease is able to degrade urea into carbon dioxide and ammonia, which helps in neutralizing the gastric acid.