A comparison of diagnostic tests for lactose malabsorption - which one is the best?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Perceived milk intolerance is a common complaint, and tests for lactose malabsorption (LM) are unreliable. This study assesses the agreement between diagnostic tests for LM and describes the diagnostic properties of the tests.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Patients above 18 years of age with suspected LM were included. After oral intake of 25 g lactose, a combined test with measurement of serum glucose (s-glucose) and hydrogen (H2) and methane (CH4) in expired air was performed and symptoms were recorded. In patients with discrepancies between the results, the combined test was repeated and a gene test for lactose non-persistence was added. The diagnosis of LM was based on an evaluation of all tests. The following tests were compared: Increase in H2, CH4, H2+CH4 and H2+CH4x2 in expired air, increase in s-glucose, and symptoms. The agreement was calculated and the diagnostic properties described.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sixty patients were included, seven (12%) had LM. The agreement (kappa-values) between the methods varied from 0.25 to 0.91. The best test was the lactose breath test with measurement of the increase in H2 + CH4x2 in expired air. With a cut-off level < 18 ppm, the area under the ROC-curve was 0.967 and sensitivity was 100%. This shows that measurement of CH4 in addition to H2 improves the diagnostic properties of the breath test.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The agreement between commonly used methods for the diagnosis of LM was unsatisfactory. A lactose breath test with measurement of H2 + CH4x2 in expired air had the best diagnostic properties.</p

YAC and cosmid contigs spanning the Batten disease (CLN3) Region at 16p12.1-p11.2

Abstract — This paper describes the hardware and behavior implementation of a miniature robot, in size of a match box, that is able to interact with cockroaches. The robot is equipped with two micro-processors dedicated to hardware processing and behavior generation. It is also equipped with 12 infra-red proximity sensors, 2 light sensors, a linear camera and a battery that allows 3 hours autonomy. The robot can discriminate cockroaches, other robots, environment boundaries and shelters. It has also three means of communication: a wireless module for monitoring and logging, an IR remote receiver for fast supervision of biological experiment and a simple local communication protocol via infrared proximity sensors to detect robots in short range. Index Terms — Micro robots, mixed-society, animal machine interaction, perceptio