Breath Test

Starting April 2, 2012 Hallmark Health System is offering the H. pylori Breath Test, a qualitative test which detects an active H. pylori infection utilizing the organism’s ability to break down urea into CO2 (urease activity).

Specimen collection is only available at the following locations:

Lawrence Memorial Hospital of Medford Outpatient Laboratory (starting April 2) 

Melrose Wakefield Hospital Outpatient Laboratory (starting April 9) 

Testing & Patient Requirements

Please send patients to the outpatient laboratory at Lawrence Memorial Hospital or Melrose Wakefield Hospital. All patients must check in at Patient Registration prior to lab testing.

Patients will be asked to breathe into two bags, one before and one after, ingesting  a dose of Pranactin^®-Citric drink. Each three (3) gram dose of Pranactin^®-Citric contains 75 mg of 13C-urea, citric acid, aspartame and mannitol. For Phenylketonuric (PKU) patients, this drug contains phenylalanine (one of the protein components of Aspartame).

Patients will need to meet the following requirements in order to be tested:

• • Fasting for 1 hour
• • No antibiotics within the past two weeks
• • No proton pump inhibitors (Prevacid, Prilosec) within the past two weeks
• • No bismuth preparations such as Pepto Bismol within the past two weeks

For additional information, please call the laboratory at (781)979-3151.

Testing is performed at Lawrence Memorial Hospital of Medford seven days a week with results available the same day. 

Hallmark Health System's Department of Laboratory Services performs approximately 1.9 million tests, using state of the art bar code technology and robotics that ensure accuracy and expedite analytical time. Our staff is made up of dedicated medical laboratory professionals, with many years of experience in the field of laboratory medicine. We offer easy access for patients throughout the Malden, Medford, Melrose and Wakefield communities. We are pioneering new telecommunication options to allow physician offices to receive laboratory results directly to the patient's electronic medical record. We are committed to providing the highest quality laboratory services through continuous quality improvement, collaboration, consolidation, and advancement in technology to meet the diagnostic needs of the communities we service.

Click here for a list of blood drawing stations

Donating blood makes a difference

Hello, My name is Fred Penney, age 66 years old and I live in Boxford, Massachusetts. I have been coming to Melrose-Wakefield Hospital for nearly five years and also to Beth Israel Deaconess for about one year trying to find a cure for Myelodysplastic Syndrome (a bone marrow disorder) anemia. It is something where the body does not get enough blood. In return, I have to come to the Melrose-Wakefield Hospital Oncology Department twice a week for transfusions. Each time I get two units of O POS blood. I want to thank all the people that donate blood to the American Red Cross, otherwise I wouldn't be thanking you now. So, please keep on donating blood to the Red Cross because there are thousands who need your blood and kindness. I retired two years ago as a Commercial Fisherman for fifty-three years and as soon as they find something to cure this, I'm going back fishing.
Thank you,
Fred Penney

We offer several blood-drawing stations throughout the communities we serve. We encourage you to take advantage of the stations outside the hospital to lessen your potential wait time.