Small bowel overgrowth in malnourished children as measured by the breadth hydrogen test - abstract

ABSTRACT

Overgrowth of the small intestine with bacteria has been implicated in the chronic diarrhoea associated with severe malnutrition. The hydrogen breath test has been introduced as a simple non-invasive technique to assess bacterial fermentation in the bowel. An increase in breath hydrogen in excess of 20 ppm within 60 minutes of the oral presentation of substrate is taken as evidence of small bowel overgrowth (SBO). The hydrogen breath test was used in 30 children admitted with severe protein energy malnutrition. Of the 19 children tested on admission and at intervals during recovery, 5 were positive on admission and a further 3 became positive at varying times after admission. Of these 8 with positive results, 5 were treated with metronidazole and all were negative on subsequent testing. Of the 3 children who were not treated one improved, but 2 had persistently positive breath hydrogen. Eleven (11) children had breath hydrogen measured at some time during recovery. In 6 the test was positive; all received metronidazole and became negative. In 2 children who had received metronidazole and were negative, the test became positive at a later date. Three children had a positive test with lactose specifically, one was treated with metronidazole and became negative. Therefore, of 30 children studied, 14 had a positive test at some time, which became negative in the 11 treated with metronidazole. We conclude that small bowel overgrowth as measured by the breath hydrogen test is a frequent accompaniment of severe malnutrition and responds to treatment with metronidazole (AU)