Functional gastrointestinal diseases

Do you suffer from complaints such as abdominal pain, flatulence (meteorism), nausea, bloatedness, diarrhoea, outgoing winds (flatulence) or do you feel that these complaints occur or are aggravated, especially after eating certain foods?

Conventional examinations often did not provide a clear diagnosis? Did you get a diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome? Then the cause could be a dysfunction of your gastrointestinal tract or food allergy or food intolerance.

At MEDIZINICUM Hamburg, our 60 physicians' interdisciplinary expertise and our state-of-the-art high-end medical technology work hand in hand to achieve fast results for you.

Examination for incompatibilities in MEDIZINICUM

Cow's milk, hen's eggs, fish and nuts are among the most valuable human foods - but like many other foods, they can also cause intolerance reactions. The symptoms of intolerance reactions range from skin changes, nausea and diarrhoea to shortness of breath and circulatory failure resulting in death. If these symptoms are caused by an excessive reaction of the immune system to actually harmless food components, it is a food allergy. Such symptoms can be clarified by so-called function tests and laboratory examinations. They complement endoscopic and histological examinations of the esophagus, stomach, small and large intestine. With the help of simple breath tests it can be clarified whether, for example, a certain sugar intolerance, such as lactose, fructose or sorbitol, is present as the cause of abdominal discomfort.

In the same simple way it can be examined whether there is a so-called bacterial overgrowth of the small intestine with colon bacteria, a delayed food passage through stomach and small intestine or a colonisation of the stomach or duodenum with the germ Helicobacter pylori. Whether a reduced digestive function of the pancreas may be responsible for the symptoms can also be clarified with a breath test. In addition, there are special laboratory tests which show hidden food allergies or food intolerances.

Our gastrointestinal diagnostics

Gastroscopy (gastroscopy)
Colonoscopy (Ileo-Coloscopy)
rectoscopy (proctoscopy)
Ultrasound (examination of all organs of the abdomen)
Stool tests (calprotectin, pathogenic germs, clostridia, hidden blood)
H2- breath tests (see below for more information)
_13C-breath tests ( see below for more information)

H2- breath tests

These tests measure the bacterial metabolisation of certain sugars in the intestine and are suitable for diagnosing certain intolerances or allow conclusions to be drawn about certain intestinal functions. Intestinal bacteria decompose carbohydrates to form hydrogen (H2), which enters the blood via the intestine and is then exhaled via the lungs. Patients only have to drink a sugar solution suitable for their question and then blow their exhaled air into a small device that measures the H2 concentration at fixed intervals over a period of 3 hours.

Lactose H2 breath test (lactose = milk sugar)
Fructose H2 breath test (fructose = fruit sugar)
Sorbitol H2 breath test (Sorbitol = sugar substitute)
Glucose H2 breath test (glucose = dextrose)
Lactulose H2 breath test (lactulose = "artificial" sugar)

13C- breath tests

These tests can be used to measure various digestive functions such as gastric emptying, production of digestive juices by the pancreas or infection of the stomach with the bacterium Helicobacter pylori. After taking a test breakfast, a test solution or a tablet according to the question they are asking, patients have to blow into the appropriate pouches at fixed intervals.

_{13C-urea breath test}(urea = urea)
_{13C-octanoic acid breath test}( _13C-OATfor short, octanoate = a fatty acid found in food).
_{13C-acetate breath test}( _13C-AATfor short, acetate = salt of acetic acid, also found in food)
_{13C-triglyceride breath test}(triglycerides are normal dietary fats)