SIBO Glucose/Lactulose/Fructose Combination, Breath

Clinical Utility

Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) is defined as excessive numbers of bacteria in the small colon causing gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms.
Breath tests are based on the fact that human cells are incapable of producing hydrogen or methane, whose presence in breath can be attributed to bacterial/archaea generation in the gut and subsequent absorption and excretion in breath.
The measurement of excessive amounts of hydrogen gas in breath following the ingestion of a fixed amount of a carbohydrate such as glucose or lactulose is therefore an indirect method of diagnosing SIBO. Methanogenic microbes (archaea) convert some hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane which can also be measured in exhaled breath. Fructose has been used in place of glucose with diabetic subjects.
The fructose breath test has also been used to diagnose fructose maldigestion or intolerance, but may benefit from a prior lactulose or glucose breath test to rule out SIBO and minimize false positive results.
(Am J Gastroenterol 2020;115:165-178)

Method

BreathTracker SC Analysis (Quintron)

Result Included

• Hydrogen (H2) in breath
• Methane (CH4) in breath

Test Location

UHN