Treatment at the Foundation?

[smudge1]

I was diagnosed with Pylori late last year and prescribed Losec for 7 days. Felt so much better after treatment so was surprised when recent tests showed I'm still positive. Symptoms seem to be coming back again now. My gastroenterologist has told me take the same course of Losec again, but having read advice on this site I am very reticent to do this. I have taken many different antibiotics throughout my life for various illnesses including pneumonia from haemophilus influenza and fear my h.p may be resistant to antibiotics. Is it possible to be treated at the Foundation with a bespoke course of treatment tailored to my specific situation?

[barjammar]

Re us treating you? I don't have time to do this myself, but we can send information to your doctor. There are suppliers I use to mail the drugs to your doctor if you arranged it. I will discuss the options with my team to see if it is feasible. Meantime, please look at http://www.trimed.com.au - it seems to me that they could send and receive breath tests, and send treatment through the mail. As I said, it would be good to have your own doctor on-board. Or escalate to a local specialist or GI specialist.
Note: Tri-Med is my company so forgive me for promoting it this once. I set it up to provide this service in Australia.

[smudge1]

Thank you very much for your response, I do appreciate how busy you must be. My GP is very supportive and happy to seek specialist advice. I guess my main question really is: if other therapy fails and the bacterium proves to be resistant, you state elsewhere on the website that "future therapy may need to be guided by antimicrobial sensitivity testing of the cultured organism from that particular patient". I much prefer the idea of a specifically targetted therapy rather than a 'trial and error, hit and miss' approach. Basically, can my GP order this testing to be done, and if so once we have the results, where do we go from there? Who/where should he contact to obtain the correct therapy for that particular strain? Should he contact Tri-Med with the results? I'm guessing the GI I saw originally is not an expert on HP if he wanted me to repeat the same therapy as last time... Thank you again for your time.

[barjammar]

Where do you live? I have uploaded a treatment paper for you.
It is at:http://helico.com/forums/docs/200808%20stenstrom%20Hp%20Treatment.pdf
Apart from that you would need to find a US expert. At UVA (my old stamping ground) there are several experts. Dr Richard Guerrant's lab can do culture and sensitivity, and Dr Crowe is probably a good bet for the testing. Make contact before you go ahead and have her involved in the plan. Try this link then search the UVa website for more links.http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/uvahealth/peds_digest/helicoba.cfm


Here is a blurb from the DDW meeting a few years back...

"We have some very exciting, high-quality medical and scientific symposia planned for this year. There is something for everyone," said AGA Institute Council Chair Sheila E. Crowe, MD, AGAF.
"If you're in clinical practice, there will be lots of invited-speaker symposia that will provide overviews on topics like inflammatory bowel disease, liver disease, and everything that complicates acid reflux disease. If someone is researching Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, which many people around the world are still doing, there will be a session on H. pylori infection. There will be lots of Research Posters and Oral Sessions from different investigators from around the world," she said.
"Many of our presentations are related to signaling and other mechanisms of cell biology, including those related to the development of cancer," said Dr. Crowe, professor of medicine at the Digestive Health Center of Excellence, University of Virginia, Charlottesville. "While the theme wasn't intentional, it does reflect some of the key science that is going on in the specialty of digestive diseases."

Shelia Crowe from U.Virginia Gastro

sheila crowe.jpg (3.75 KiB) Viewed 543 times

[smudge1]

Thank you so much. That is really helpful, I will show this to my GP and hopefully we will get rid of this thing once and for all! I am actually just across the ditch in NZ and will be in Melbourne for a few days end March which was what prompted my original question.. Thanks again, I am sure I am amongst many thousands of people who are very grateful for all the hard work you have put in to trying to eradicate of this awful bug!!

[snorkie]

I found the above posts very informative but have a couple of questions. My husband had a blood test that came back 0.7 for H pylori... the doctor said it was in the negative range. The internist put him on Protonix am & pm and told him to eat a bland, low fat diet. Background on my husband: He had a denervation procedure done on the nerves in his neck that were causing ice pick headaches. The Pain Specialist had him on Norco for about 6 months. Once the denervation process was completed we weaned him off of Norco and that was when his stomach conditions became a separate issue. I was concerned he was having stomach issue before but it was impossible to tell if the headaches where causing the nausea/vomiting until now. End of January he started taking anti-acids and prilosec, and eating bland diet. 23rd February, 2010 was when he started Protonix bid. When the blood test came back negative for H pylori I was concerned as I have medical background in gastroenterology and my husbands symptoms resembled dyspepsia, which I thought could lead to an ulcer or gastritis. I also had learned that blood tests can be false negative, but when talking with the doctor yesterday he would not budge. While we have health insurance it doesn't cover much and I've just recently lost my job so the cost for the upper endoscopy will be a financial problem for us. Since our move to Emmett, Idaho we have had difficulty finding what one would call outstanding doctors and financially trying to find them continues to be a problem. So, how do we proceed, since my husbands symptoms have not gotten better? I appreciate your time as I know your plate is over loaded, but I just didn't know where to turn. Thank you in advance for any advice you can give us. Snorkie

[barjammar]

A negative blood test makes Hp rather unlikely. A GI consultation is probably the way to go. Sounds like your family doctor is doing a reasonable job - mainly rule out metabolic problems and treat the GI symptoms for a while, then scale things up if that fails. If you DO go to a GI and have an endoscopy, then cease the PPI seven days before the test so that he/she can see an "untreated" stomach and esophagus. Take an antral and corpus biopsy and duodenal biopsy. Start saving up. The economy is picking up, expect a job offer soon.

[snorkie]

Thank you so much for your time. Could the PPI affect the blood results on the H. pylori? and do you know any gastro doctors in Boise, ID? Thank you again for replying, I appreciate your input.

[barjammar]

The blood test for H.pylori is not affected by PPI treatment. However, antibodies remain for 1-2 years after treatment so blood tests are usually FALSE POSITIVE after successful treatment. Therefore always back up a positive test with a urea breath test (UBT) or stool antigen test.
The nearest H.pylori expert to you is probably Dr Mae Go who I believe is Section Chief of Gastroenterology, VA SLC Health Care System, Salt Lake City, Utah. Her web page is here: http://medicine.utah.edu/internalMedicine/gastroenterology/_staff/faculty/MaeF.htm. She has an article on the web here.http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/453399.

Dr Mae Go SLC UT

mae_go.JPG (11.58 KiB) Viewed 529 times

Dr Go is highly respected in this area and has written book chapters about H.pylori etc. At the very least her office might know experts in your area. Good luck.

[snorkie]

Thank you so much, you are such a wealth of information! I will copy the doctor's name down you referenced as we need him. Again, thank you for responding to my questions and thank you for giving me your time. Take care and good luck you cause is one of the best ones I've seen on this subject.