Applicability of short hydrogen breath test for screening of lactose malabsorption

The gold standard for diagnosing lactose malabsorption is the H₂ hydrogen breath test (HBT). Different methods of HBT have been proposed. However, in clinical practice the HBT is often shortened to 1–2 hr without proper validation. Our objective was to establish whether the usefulness of the HBT is influenced by shortening of the test and/or by substrate variations. In 62 patients with clinically suspected lactose intolerance and a positive lactose HBT we calculated the sensitivity of the HBT depending on the duration of the HBT. To determine whether substrate variations influence the sensitivity of the HBT, in another group of 32 patients with clinically suspected lactose intolerance and a positive milk HBT, the sensitivity of the HBT was also calculated depending on the duration of the test after milk ingestion. In other unselected 97 individuals, the result of the HBT with 360 ml of whole milk supplemented with lactose was compared with a symptomatic score for lactose intolerance to evaluate the specificity of the shortened milk HBT. Breath H₂ excretion was significantly higher after lactose than after milk load (P < 0.01), and the increase in H₂ appeared earlier with lactose than with milk (60 vs 90, min respectively). HBT duration influenced the sensitivity of the test that decreased from 95% for the 3-hr HBT to 37% for the 1-hr HBT with lactose and from 80% for 3-hr HBT to 21% for 1-hr HBT with milk. The specificity was similar for the 3-hr milk HBT and the 5-hr test (67 vs 62%). In conclusion, for screening of lactose malabsorption, the HBT can be shortened to 3 hr without loss of sensitivity and specificity, when a high dose of lactose load is used.