Breath test for differential diagnosis between small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and irritable bowel disease: An observation on non-absorbable antibiotics

Table 3 Results of “breath test” and symptom score in 32 patients with defini-tive diagnosis of SIBO treated with rifaximin 1200 mg/d for 7 d

	Before treatment	After treatment with rifaximin
Breath test	Positive	Positive	Negative
	32 (100.0%)	13 (40.6%)	19 (59.4%)
Global	3.48 ± 0.82	3.24 ± 0.80	0.91 ± 0.06
symptom score		NS	P = 0.004
		After a further antibiotic treatment with ciprofloxacin
Breath test		Positive Negative
		12 1
Global symptom score		3.32 ± 0.95 1.00

The test was repeated one week later and, in the subjects with a still positive “breath test”, a further treatment with ciprofloxacin was done (the data are re-ported as frequencies or mean ± standard deviation as appropriate).