The importance of methane breath testing.pdf

The importance of methane breath testing: a review This article has been downloaded from IOPscience. Please scroll down to see the full text article. 2013 J. Breath Res. 7 024001 (/1752-7163/7/2/024001) Download details: IP Address: 73 The article was downloaded on 15/05/2013 at 16:31 Please note that terms and conditions apply. View the table of contents for this issue, or go to the journal homepage for more Home Search Collections Journals About Contact us My IOPscience IOP PUBLISHING JOURNAL OF BREATH RESEARCH J. Breath Res. 7 (2013) 024001 (8pp) doi:10.1088/1752-7155/7/2/024001 TOPICAL REVIEW The importance of methane breath testing: a review B P J de Lacy Costello1, M Ledochowski2 and N M Ratcliffe1 1 University of the West of England, Institute of Biosensor Technology, Coldharbour lane, Frenchay, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK 2 Academy of Clinical Nutrition Anichstrasse, 17, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria E-mail: Norman.Ratcliffe@uwe.ac.uk Received 23 October 2012 Accepted for publication 18 December 2012 Published 8 March 2013 Online at /JBR/7/024001 Abstract Sugar malabsorption in the bowel can lead to bloating, cramps, diarrhea and other symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome as well as affecting absorption of other nutrients. The hydrogen breath test is now a well established noninvasive test for assessing malabsorption of sugars in the small intestine. However, there are patients who can suffer from the same spectrum of malabsorption issues but who produce little or no hydrogen, instead producing relatively large amounts of methane. These patients will avoid detection with the traditional breath test for malabsorption based on hydrogen detection. Likewise the hydrogen breath test is an established method for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) diagnoses. Therefore, a number of false negatives would be expected for patients who solely produce methane. Usually patients produce either hydrogen or methane, and only rarely there are significant co-producers, as typic