Community pharmacy--based H. pylori screening for patients with uninvestigated dyspepsia.

Background: Helicobacter pylori is identified by the World Health Organization as a major risk factor of gastritis, peptic ulcer disease and gastric carcinomas. As point-of-care screening technology becomes more widely available, pharmacists are ideally suited to use this tool to screen patients with H. pylori infection. Purpose: the objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of implementing point-of-care screening technology for H. pylori into community pharmacy practice and to assess the number of patients who are positively identified as a result of testing. Methods: three pharmacies in toronto, Ontario, offered H. pylori screening as part of their clinical programs. Pharmacists enrolled patients with symptoms of dyspepsia and/or receiving acid suppressant therapy for >6 weeks. Decision to screen was based on the canadian Helicobacter study Group consensus (cHsG). Patients were screened using the rapid response H. pylori test. Results: seventy-one patients were recruited, with a mean age of 46.3 years. Patients were ethnically diverse, with a significant proportion (59.2%) identified as being born outside of North America, including Asia (26.8%), Africa (9.9%), the Middle East (7%), Europe (9.9%) and south and central America (5.6%). Overall, the detection rate of H. pylori infection was 21%. North Americans had the lowest incidence of an undiagnosed H. pylori infection (6.9%). Europeans (28.6%), Middle Easterners (20%) and Asians (21.1%) had a moderate incidence, followed by the highest prevalence in those of African descent (71.4%). Conclusion: these results highlight the readiness of community pharmacists to adopt H. pylori screening into practice and to leverage this novel technology to positively identify and treat undiagnosed H. pylori infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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