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TL;DR
It concludes that breath testing is a useful, safe, and noninvasive diagnostic tool whose interpretation is influenced by patient population, symptoms, and substrate choice.
Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology · 2 authors, 1 centre
This summary was generated by AI from a single paper. It has not been reviewed by a clinician and is not clinical advice. Verify against the source before acting on it.
It concludes that breath testing is a useful, safe, and noninvasive diagnostic tool whose interpretation is influenced by patient population, symptoms, and substrate choice.
This narrative review by Tansel and Levinthal provides a comprehensive overview of hydrogen-methane breath testing for diagnosing SIBO. The authors searched PubMed through January 2023 and hand-searched references, including studies with jejunal aspirates as a gold standard for diagnostic accuracy and studies with at least 100 patients for prevalence data. The review covers test preparation, administration, and interpretation, reporting consensus cutoffs of a hydrogen rise of 20 ppm from baseline by 90 minutes and a methane rise of 10 ppm at any time as positive results. Key findings include that elevated baseline gases occur in approximately a quarter of patients, chlorhexidine mouthwash significantly reduces elevated baseline gases, and the North American protocol yields a higher positivity rate (39.5%) compared with the modified Rome protocol (29.7%).