title: Failure of the hydrogen breath test to detect pulmonary sugar malabsorption.
abstract: Five patients with sucrase-isomaltase deficiency, and one patient with primary glucose-galactose malabsorption had no increases in breath hydrogen excretion after oral sucrose or glucose. Anaerobic incubation with sugars of stool suspensions from 5 patients with primary sugar malabsorption produced by trace of hydrogen (17 microliter) in only one, while those from 13 or 14 controls produced a mean hydrogen volume of 640 microliter under similar conditions. Altered bacterial metabolism is a probable explanation. Breath hydrogen excretion did increase appreciably in 2 of these patients after oral lactulose showing that hydrogen excretion may vary according to the substrate. Therefore, observation of breath hydrogen excretion after lactulose is not recommended as a means of predicting false-negative breath tests with other sugars. The hydrogen breath test is not a reliable mean of diagnosing primary sugar malabsorption in children.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001944:Breath Tests / Q000379:methods*; D002239:Carbohydrate Metabolism, Inborn Errors / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005243:Feces / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D005690:Galactose / Q000378:metabolism; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D006859:Hydrogen / Q000032:analysis*; D007223:Infant; D007792:Lactulose / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D013395:Sucrose / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D007792:Lactulose; D013395:Sucrose; D006859:Hydrogen; D005947:Glucose; D005690:Galactose