Use of breath hydrogen testing to detect experimentally induced disaccharide malabsorption in healthy adult dogs

Objective-To develop a noninvasive method to detect disaccharide malabsorpt ion in dogs by measuring hydrogen concentration ([H-2]) in exhaled breath b efore and after experimentally induced disaccharide malabsorption. Animals-8 healthy mixed-breed dogs. Procedure-[H-2] was measured every 30 minutes for 8 hours after administrat ion of disaccharide solutions (lactose, 0.5 g/kg of body weight; lactose, 1 .0 g/kg; sucrose, 2.0 g/kg; maltose, 1.5 g/kg; and lactose 10.5 g/kg] and s ucrose 12.0 g/kg]) to determine reference ranges of [H-2] for each solution , which were compared with [H-2] in dogs with experimentally induced disacc haride malabsorption. To induce disaccharide malabsorption, dogs were given a mild overdose of lactose (1.5 g/kg) or a disaccharidase inhibitor. in th e latter experiment, acarbose (10 mg/kg, PO) was given with the combination of lactose 10.5 g/kg) and sucrose (2 g/kg), and with maltose (1.5 g/kg). Results-Overdosing with lactose resulted in [H2] persistently outside the r eference range for lactose in 5 of 8 dogs. Acarbose administration resulted in [H2] persistently outside the reference range in 7 of 8 dogs that recei ved a combination of sucrose and lactose but did not consistently affect [H -2] after administration of maltose, Conclusions-Disaccharide malabsorption resulted in [H-2] outside the refere nce ranges in most of the adult dogs studied, suggesting that the technique may be useful in detecting naturally occurring disaccharidase deficiency.