Showing papers on "Breath test published in 1975"

An evaluation of the 'breath test' in Crohn's disease.

Abstract: The 1-(14C)-glycine-glycocholic-acid breath test was evaluated in 10 normal subjects and in 38 patients with Crohn's disease. Twelve patients were non-operated and 26 had been subjected to ileal resection (10-180 cm). In addition, coecal resection or right-sided hemicolectomy was performed on 20 patients and subtotal colectomy on six. The 14C-excretion in breath was abnormally elevated in only 16 of the 38 patients with Crohn's disease. Combining 14C-excretion in both breath and faeces, the test was found to be correlated with the activity of the disease in non-operated cases, whereas all resected patients were found to have bile acid malabsorption. It is concluded that the breath test is useless in Crohn's disease without concomitant measurement of the radioactivity in stools. The faecal 14C-excretion was correlated with the extent of ileal resection and with the extent of colonic resection, whereas the 14C-excretion in breath was independent of the type of operation performed. The breath test was found to be a more sensitive assay for ileal dysfunction than the duodenal bile acid concentration and the vitamin B12 absorption. No correlation with an elevated G/T-ratio and an abnormal bacterial growth was found.

[Breath-analysis tests in gastroenetrological diagnosis].

Abstract: The introduction of a simple method for analysis of 14CO2 in breath allowed a more widely application of breath-tests in the diagnosis of gastroenterological diseases. During a breath-test a 14C-labelled compound is administered orally and 14CO2 is subsequently measured in breath by discontinuous samplings of 14CO2 by virtue of a trapping solution (hyamine hydroxide). Most helpful tests in gastroenterology are the 14C-glycyl-cholate breath test for detecting increased deconjugation of bile acids due to small intestinal bacterial overgrowth or bile acid malabsorption in ileal resection or Crohn's disease of the ileum, the 14C-lactose breath test in lactase deficiency, whereas the 14C-tripalmitin test seems less helpful in the diagnosis of fat malabsorption. A 14C-aminopyrine breath test may turn out to be a simple and valuable liver function test. Oral loading tests with breath analysis of H2 have shown to be helpful in the diagnosis of carbohydrate malabsorption, determination of intestinal transit time and intestinal gas production. Due to technical reasons (gas-chromatographie analysis) H2-breath analysis is still limited to research centers. Despite low radiation doses after oral administration of 14C-labelled compounds oral loading tests with H2- or 13C-analysis might be preferable in the future.