Helicobacter Forums

Since my provider hasn't given me much advice on preparing for the breath test (other than to stop PPIs and Bismuth solutions for 2 weeks), I've looked around at other medical practices for instructions and noticed that several suggest halting H2 Antagonists for 1-3 days before the test (one even suggested two weeks!).

I looked for studies into why this might be the case, but could only find one (from 2001) which observed a 13% false negative rate: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11232674/

Has anyone researched this further, and can explain why there is inconsistency in prep advice? Does anyone know whether H2s affect false negatives with the stool test equally - as I may request a follow up test in case the breath test shows negative.

The general rule is, the longer you wait, the less risk of the test being affected by the medication.
Usually people metabolised the medication within two weeks. However, everyone is different. Some has lower metabolic rate than others and may have to wait longer.

But here is our guideline on how many days you should stop the medications before the breath test.
https://helico.com/PYtest_guide_2013.pdf

Thank you for this much more detailed and comprehensive reply than what my provider offered.

Do you have any guidance regarding the Stool Test - is the false positivity rate altered by the use of H2 Antagonists?

H2 antagonist have little to no affect to stool/breath test.

The guideline I provide should work for stool test as well.