Electrochemical detector.pdf

Gut, 1981, 22, 836-840 Electrochemical detector for breath hydrogen determination: measurement of small bowel transit time in normal subjects and patients with the irritable bowel syndrome C L CORBETT,* S THOMAS, N W READ, N HOBSON, I BERGMAN, AND C D HOLDSWORTH From the Gastroenterology Unit, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, and Health and Safety Executive Laboratories, Sheffield SUMMARY A method is described for the measurement of hydrogen in expired air, using an electrochemical detector. The apparatus is simple to use and sensitive. Its application is illus- trated by studies of small bowel transit time made by measuring the time between oral ingestion of the unabsorbable carbohydrate lactulose and a rise in the concentration of hydrogen in ex- pired air. In 20 control subjects transit time was 93.0±6.6 minutes, while in 16 patients with diarrhoea due to the irritable bowel syndrome it was 541-+6±3 minutes (PO0OOI), suggesting an abnormality in small intestinal motility in these patients. Loperamide, a potent antidiarrhoeal agent, increased transit time in 12 of these patients from 56.3±6.7 to 100-0±102 minutes (pO00 1). The measurement of hydrogen in expired air has found an increasing number of applications, in- cluding the detection of small bowel bacterial colonisation and disaccharidase deficiency,2 the detection and quantification of carbohydrate mal- absorption,-; and the measurement of small bowel transit time.- The concentration of hydrogen in expired air is conventionally measured by gas chromatography using a thermal conductivity de- tector.10 11 Such apparatus is expensive and not universally available. This report describes the use of an electrochemical detector, which, when com- bined with a simple chromatographic system, allows rapid and sensitive measurement of breath hydrogen. We report its application to the measurement of small bowel transit time in normal control subjects and in patients with diarrhoea attributed to the irritable bowel