Lactulose Breath Hydrogen Test in Diagnosis of Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth in Children / 实用儿科临床杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate lactulose breath hydrogen test in diagnosis of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth in children.Me-thods Thirty-five children,aged 3 to 13 years old with mean (7.72?3.06) years old presented with chronic diarrhea,abdominal pain and flatulence.Among them,18 cases were male and 17 cases were female.Breath hydrogen test was carried out after the administration of a 0.5 g?kg-1 or 10 g lactulose,which was 100 g?L-1 solution.After the ingestion of lactulose,the breath hydrogen was collected in every 20 minutes and up to 3 hours.Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth was diagnosed as positive when the hydrogen concentration increased more than 20 mg?m-3 in a sample.Results Eighteen cases in 35 (51.43%) children were positive and 17 cases were negative.Among these positive cases,8 cases in 18 (22.86%) patients were typically double peaks in breath hydrogen concentrations.Among the causes of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth in children,4 cases with chronic superficial gastritis,4 cases with chronic bacterial enteritis,2 cases with malnutrition and anorexia,1 case with volvulus of stomach,1 case with massive resection of small intestine,1 case with steatorrhea and 5 cases with unknown causes.Four cases of chronic bacterial enteritis were gained remission by antimicrobial agents.The other cases were treated by lac-to-and bifidbacteria probiotics.Seven patients of the clinical systems were controlled,3 cases were improved remarkably and 4 cases were failed.Conclusions The lactulose breath hydrogen test is validated as screening test in the diagnosis of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth in children.Antimicrobial agents and bifidbacteria probiotics is effective in treatment of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.