Patent ID: 7736622

Claim:
A method of detecting small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) in a human subject, comprising: detecting relative amounts of methane, hydrogen, and at least one sulfur-containing gas in a gas mixture exhaled by said human subject, after said human subject has ingested a controlled quantity of an isotope-labeled sugar, a sugar that is poorly digestible by a human or an isotope-labeled sugar that is poorly digestible by a human, said gas mixture being at least partially produced by the intestinal microflora of said human subject; and corroborating the relative amounts of methane, hydrogen, and at least one sulfur-containing gas with a presence or absence of SIBO, wherein an amount of methane, hydrogen, or at least one sulfur-containing gas that is above a normal range for a healthy human subject for the methane, hydrogen, and/or at least one sulfur-containing gas is corroborated with the presence of SIBO, an amount of methane and/or hydrogen that is less than an amount of the at least one sulfur-containing gas is corroborated with the presence of SIBO, an amount of methane, hydrogen, and at least one sulfur-containing gas that is below the normal range for a healthy human subject for methane, hydrogen, and at least one sulfur-containing gas is corroborated with the absence of SIBO, or an absence of methane, hydrogen, or at least one sulfur-containing gas is corroborated with the absence of SIBO.