Introduction: H.pylori (HP) infection is a major cause of gastro-duodenal disease burden worldwide, causing benign as well as malignant lesions. Various methods are available for diagnosis of gastric H. pylori (gHP) infection. Presence of oral HP infection is a well documented phenomenon. Rapid urease test is being used as a quick and reliable test for detection of gHP.

Aim: We endeavor to find out whether detection of oral H. pylori (oHP) infection, using a cheap but reliable, non-invasive test like rapid urease slide test (RUT) in patients undergoing upper GI endoscopy (UGIE) for dyspepsia, predict the occurrence of gHP.

Materials and Method: We serially evaluated 250 patients undergoing routine upper GI endoscopy (UGIE) for dyspepsia over a period of 1 year, for presence of gastric and oral H. pylori. Patients with red flags and significant co-morbidities were excluded.

Results: Overall prevalence for gHP was 78.8% (197 out of 250 patients while the overall prevalence of oHP was 63.6 % (159 out of 250 patients). Patients with duodenitis and duodenal ulcer had the highest occurrence of gastric and oral H.pylori infection. Oral RUT was positive in 72.97% cases of duodenitis and 78.04% cases of duodenal ulcer.

Conclusion: Oral swab detection of Helicobacter pylori using RUT is helpful to detect the occurrence of gastric H. pylori in those patients with gastro-duodenal lesions, especially duodenitis and duodenal ulcers. This may, in the long run, be helpful to reduce the disease burden of H. pylori related diseases.

Keywords: Helicobacter pylori, dyspepsia, rapid urease test, oral plaque, upper GI endoscopy.

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