We receive lots of questions and we tend to be confident that we know what the user has requested. However, occasionally we receive questions which are less clear. In these situations we get back to the clinician and try and figure out why they’re asking the Q. We received this one:

How long should you stop a PPI for before doing helicobacter serology?

It seems a reasonable question, but it’s ambiguous. For instance is this pre- or post-eradication?

It transpires that it was post-eradication. Over the course of the exchange I highlighted that serology is not recommend post-eradication and that a breath test should be used. Therefore, we end up with the ‘proper’ question:

How long should a patient avoid PPIs prior to a H.pylori, post-eradication, breath test?

It hasn’t changed a great deal but the differences are crucial!