Detection capacity of small intestine bacterial or methanogen overgrowth by lactose and fructose breath testing in the adult population

Abstract

Exhaled breath tests (BTs) are the main diagnostic method for fructose and lactose malabsorption/intolerance (FI and LI, respectively) and for detecting small intestine bacterial or methanogen overgrowth (SIBO/IMO). Although FI/LI-BTs may provide evidence of the presence of SIBO/IMO, there is limited literature evaluating their reliability for this purpose. The objective of this study was to assess the sensitivity and specificity of FI/LI-BTs in detecting SIBO and their concordance with SIBO-BTs in the identification of IMO.

Keywords

• fructose malabsorption/intolerance
• lactose malabsorption/intolerance
• small intestine bacterial overgrowth
• intestinal methanogenic overgrowth
• exhaled breath test