EVAL OF THE SORBITOL BREATH TEST TO DX SM INTESTINE BACT OVERGROWTH

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Bacterial overgrowth is a condition found primarily in the elderly and is estimated to affect 33% of people over 65 years. It causes great discomfort and clinically important nutritional deficiencies if left untreated. The underlying cause is reduced gastric acid secretion associated with aging. Management of overgrowth is hampered because low cost and easy to diagnose tests do not exist. Detection is meaningful because while the condition is never cured, it can be effectively controlled through treatment. Our objective is to develop an easy to use and cost effective test to detect bacterial overgrowth. The clinical utility is the ability to detect the bacterial overgrowth as accurately as the gold standard (jejunal cultures) in patients exhibiting classic disease symptoms but who ordinarily would not receive the invasive and expensive jejunal culture. The test will accurately detect the condition pre- and post-therapy and lead to quality of life improvement. The novelty of this proposal is the use of a non-invasive breath test employing a naturally occurring sugar labeled with carbon-13 as a probe. If overgrowth is present, the bacteria in the small intestine metabolize the labeled substrate and high concentrations of 13CO2 are expired in the breath.