Can blowing check stomach problems?

After suffering from stomach problems, many people feel very painful, not only because of the torture brought by stomach pain, but also because gastroscopy is generally required when examining stomach diseases. Many people feel very unacceptable after experiencing gastroscopy because it is indeed very uncomfortable. People want to find a way to replace gastroscopy. After learning about certain promotional materials, some people believe that blowing can replace gastroscopy. So can blowing be used to check for stomach problems? Let’s analyze it in detail below.

Breath test for Helicobacter pylori

1. In 1994, the International Agency for Research on Cancer under the World Health Organization discovered for the first time through scientific statistics that Helicobacter pylori is closely related to the incidence of gastric cancer. Therefore, it is listed as the only microbial carcinogen currently. Therefore, people began to examine Helicobacter pylori (Hp for short).

2. HP has highly active urease properties, which can decompose urea to produce ammonia and carbon dioxide. When doing the breath test, the subject takes a urea capsule labeled with carbon-13 (13C) or carbon-14 (14G) isotopes on an empty stomach, and then blows into the breath card for about two minutes half an hour later. By detecting the content of carbon isotopes, it is possible to indirectly determine whether the subject is infected with HP. This is commonly known as the puff test.

3. However, even if Helicobacter pylori is found, it cannot be determined that there is stomach disease. The HP infection rate among Chinese people is about 40~90%, and the current infection rate is around 55%. This does not mean that these people all have stomach problems. Many people are healthy carriers, and further examination is needed for diagnosis.

Can "air blow test" replace gastroscopy?

Many patients with stomach problems are "mirror-phobic". After suffering from stomach pain for a long time, they are unwilling to undergo a gastroscopy and wonder if there are other methods that can replace it.

In life, there are always many private hospitals and medical examination institutions that cater to their psychology and promote the idea of ​​"just take a breath and check for stomach problems easily." As a result, many people misunderstood that a high-sounding carbon 13 breath test could be used to detect "stomach problems."

Whether it's a "breath test" or a "breath test," they're all talking about this: the carbon 13 (or carbon 14) urea breath test. Its principle is to use carbon isotopes (carbon 14 or carbon 13) to label the carbon atoms in urea, and use the ability of Helicobacter pylori to decompose urea to determine the presence of this bacteria.

After taking the marked urea capsule orally, if there is Helicobacter pylori in the stomach, the urease produced by it will decompose the marked urea into carbon dioxide and ammonia. The marked carbon atom in the urea will be transferred to carbon dioxide, and the carbon dioxide will be excreted from the body from the lungs through the blood circulation, and the excreted carbon dioxide will be collected (blown or exhaled).

By measuring the carbon dioxide content produced by the decomposition of Helicobacter pylori with specific instruments, it is possible to determine whether the stomach is infected with Helicobacter pylori.

That’s right, this convenient and painless test has a high accuracy rate and is recognized as the best method for detecting Helicobacter pylori.

But checking for "stomach disease" is not that simple

First of all, the concept of "gastric disease" is very broad. Patients usually seek medical treatment for stomach pain or stomach discomfort. Only a small number of patients can accurately locate the stomach problem during their first visit. (Many patients who thought they had stomach problems eventually discovered that they had problems with their gallbladder, appendix, colon, or even cardiovascular problems.)

Secondly, there are many types of "stomach diseases", including acute erosive gastritis, atrophic gastritis, gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer, functional gastrointestinal disease, gastric cancer, etc. Although many of them are related to Helicobacter pylori, it is definitely not as simple as “positive = stomach problem, negative = nothing wrong”.

Helicobacter pylori infection is a common cause of "stomach disease", but it is not the only cause of "stomach disease". Many other physical, chemical and biological factors can cause stomach diseases. Therefore, it is very problematic to judge whether your stomach is healthy just by checking whether the Helicobacter pylori test is positive.

To give a scary example, in clinical practice, we can see many gastric cancer patients whose Helicobacter pylori test results have all been negative in the past. Can we say that the stomach is in good condition if the Helicobacter pylori test is negative? Obviously not.

Summarize

The breath test is a highly targeted and single-function test with only one function: to check whether the Helicobacter pylori in the body is negative or positive. It cannot directly determine the health of stomach diseases.

The best way to understand gastric diseases is to have an endoscopic examination. Gastroscopy can directly see whether there are lesions in the entire esophagus and gastric mucosa and the pathological conditions of the lesions. It can also detect lesions that cannot be accurately judged by white light with the naked eye through magnification, staining, biopsy and other means. This is an advantage that cannot be replaced by other examinations. In short, do a gastroscopy when it is time to do it. Don't try to save trouble. Regular diagnosis and treatment is the scientific and rational approach.