Breath Test Detects Vitamin B12 Levels

Diagnosis of vitamin B12 deficiency can be made using a simple, noninvasive, low-cost breath test.

Scientists have developed a test to detect the levels of vitamin B12 using a person's breath, allowing for a cheaper, faster diagnosis that could help to avoid the potentially fatal symptoms of B12 deficiency.

Vitamin B12 plays a crucial role in the breakdown of a common preservative called sodium propionate in bakery products, into carbon dioxide. Therefore, investigators decided to administer propionate to subjects, which would be broken down with the aid of vitamin B12 in the body, and then measure the resultant carbon dioxide.

The initial testing of the B12 breath test conducted measurements on subjects with chronic pancreatitis, Crohn's disease, and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, as well as patients over 65, all of which are associated with a higher incidence of vitamin B12 deficiency.

After fasting and not smoking for 8 hours, the study participants were orally administered 50 mg of propionate and then tested every 10 minutes for the first hour and every 15 minutes for the second hour, with the best diagnostic accuracy appearing to be the 10- and 20-minute intervals.

To ascertain the accuracy of the breath test, the obtained vitamin B12 levels were compared with several blood compounds that are currently used to ascertain vitamin B12 deficiency. The results indicated that the vitamin B12 breath test is a noninvasive, sensitive, specific, and reproducible diagnostic test to detect vitamin B12 deficiency.

Lead author Dr. David Wagner said, "Initially, larger studies must be conducted including treatment of B12 deficient subjects showing resolution of the abnormal breath test results. If these results are positive, FDA approval with many study centers will need to be conducted."

The test was developed by scientists from the University of Florida at Gainesville (FL, USA) and Metabolic Solutions, Inc. (Nashua, NH, USA).

The study was published on June 23, 2011, in IOP Publishing's Journal of Breath Research.

Related Links:
University of Florida, Gainesville
Metabolic Solutions, Inc.