Comparison of quantum dot immunofluorescence histochemistry with conventional immunohistochemistry in detecting Helicobacter pylori infection in paraffin-embedded tissues of gastric biopsy

Quantum dots (QDs) are a new type of fluorescent label, which has been widely used in many biological and biomedical imaging applications. In this study, we used QDs-based immunofluorescence histochemistry (QDs-IHC) and conventional immunohistochemistry (IHC) techniques to perform a retrospective analysis on paraffin-embedded tissues of gastric biopsies in 203 patients (112 of which were HP positive and 91 were negative). The ability of QDs-IHC to detect Helicobacter pylori (HP) in gastric biopsies compared to IHC technology was evaluated. In our study, both methods showed consistent HP morphology and localization. The positive detection rate of HP for QDs-IHC in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue was 54.7% (111/203), and the sensitivity and specificity reached 99.11% and 100%, respectively. However the positive detection rate of HP for IHC was 53.7% (109/203), with a sensitivity and specificity of 97.32% and 100%, respectively. Weak positives (1+) were detected in 2 case of QDs-IHC with negative in IHC, and moderate positives (2+) were detected in 3 case of QDs-IHC with weak positives (1+) in IHC. The consistency test showed that the two methods showed good agreement (κ?=?0.980, P?=?0.014), but the sensitivity of QDs-IHC was slightly higher than that of conventional IHC. Our results show that QDs-IHC has strong sensitivity and high specificity. It is superior to conventional IHC in detecting HP infection in FFPE tissues of gastric biopsy, especially in tissues with low HP content.