Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Dellert, Susan F
• Nowicki, Michael J
• Farrell, Michael K
• Delente, Jacques
• Heubi, James E

Titel

The 13C-Xylose Breath Test for the Diagnosis of Small Bowel Bacterial Overgrowth in Children

Ist Teil von

• Journal of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition, 1997-08, Vol.25 (2), p.153-158

Ort / Verlag

Hagerstown, MD: Lippincott-Raven Publishers

Erscheinungsjahr

1997

Quelle

Wiley Online Library All Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• BACKGROUNDWe evaluated the clinical utility of the C-xylose breath test for the diagnosis of small bowel bacterial overgrowth in children. METHODSTo determine the optimal dose of C-xylose, 29 healthy children, 3 to 12 years old, were randomly assigned to receive one of three doses of C-xylose (10, 25, or 50 mg). After an overnight fast, the oral dose of C-xylose was administered, and breath samples were collected every 30 minutes for 4 hours. Samples were analyzed for CO2 by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. Using the 50 mg dose, we then performed nine breath tests with concurrent duodenal bacterial cultures in 6 children, 3 to 12 years old, with short-bowel syndrome (n = 2), immunodeficiency states (n = 1), and motility disorders (n = 3). RESULTSExcretion of CO2 in breath peaked at 2.5 hours in all three control groups. The 50-mg dose produced the highest median peak and the smallest range of CO2 excretion in breath within each time period. The time of peak CO2 excretion in breath varied among the diseased children; however, the six patients with small-bowel bacterial overgrowth (2 × 10 - 3.5 × 10 gram negative rods) all had peak CO2 that exceeded the maximum breath CO2 level in breath of the control subjects at the corresponding time period (100% sensitivity). Of the three patients with negative cultures, two had negative breath test results and one had positive results (67% specificity). One subject had normalization of both duodenal culture and breath test results after antibiotic treatment of small-bowel bacterial overgrowth. CONCLUSIONSOur preliminary results suggest that with a dose of 50 mg C-xylose, breath test results reliably predict small-bowel bacterial overgrowth in susceptible children.