Intestinal Permeability SIBO IBS.pdf

original article Gut and Liver, Vol. 3, No. 3, September 2009, pp. 174-179 Correspondence to: Jung Ho Park Department of Internal Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 108, Pyeong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-746, Korea Tel: +82-2-2001-2484, Fax: +82-2-2001-2485, E-mail: pjho3@ Received on December 7, 2008. Accepted on May 5, 2009. The Relationship between Small-Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth and Intestinal Permeability in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome Jung Ho Park*, Dong Il Park*, Hong Joo Kim*, Yong Kyun Cho*, Chong Il Sohn*, Woo Kyu Jeon*, Byung Ik Kim*, Kyoung Hee Won?, and Soon Min Park? *Department of Internal Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, ?Suwon Health Screening Center, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Suwon, Korea Background/Aims: Small-intestinal bacterial over- growth (SIBO) is a frequent finding in patients with ir- ritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Many patients with IBS also have abnormal intestinal permeability, which is probably due to low-grade inflammation in the in- testinal mucosa. Our aim was to verify the relation- ship between SIBO and small-intestinal permeability in IBS patients. Methods: A cohort of 38 IBS patients (20 women and 18 men; age range 16-70 years; mean age 40.2 years) with symptoms that fulfilled Rome-II criteria, and 12 healthy controls (5 women and 7 men; age range 25-52 years; mean age: 37.8 years) were recruited. All subjects underwent lactulose breath tests (LBTs) and intestinal permeability tests using the polyethylene glycol (PEG) 3350/400 retrieval ratio. Results: A positive LBT was found in 18.4% (7/38) of patients with IBS and 8.3% (1/12) of control subjects. Intestinal permeability was significantly in- creased in patients with IBS compared with the nor- mal controls (0.82±0.09 vs 0.41±0.05 [mean±SD], re- spectively; p＜0.05). However, the intestinal perme- ability did not differ significantly between IBS pat