Breath hydrogen test for lactose absorption capacity: importance of timing of hydrogen excretion and of high fasting hydrogen concentration.

The breath hydrogen (H2) test for lactose absorption capacity is a simple, noninvasive method for the determination of the adult lactase phenotypes, lactose absorber and malabsorber, in healthy subjects. Two breath H2 tests with a load of 50 g lactose monohydrate were performed on 25 healthy adult lactose malabsorbers in order to determine the validity of simplified versions of the test for field studies. A high variability of peak H2 excretion times, rapid changes in breath H2 concentrations and a significant correlation of intraindividual peak H2 excretion times were observed. High fasting excretion of H2 in breath was a frequent cause of misclassification of probands. It is recommended that at least three breath samples per proband should be collected in field studies of lactose absorption and that special diagnostic criteria be applied in classifying subjects with high initial H2 excretion.