THURSDAY, June 14 (HealthDay News) -- Bacterial overgrowth of the small intestine, according to standard definitions, is probably not a contributing factor to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), although mild overgrowth of bacteria is common and should be studied further, according to a report in the June issue of Gut.
Magnus Simren, M.D., of Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden, and colleagues measured small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) in 162 patients with IBS who underwent small-bowel manometry and culture of jejunal aspirates. The results were compared to cultures from 26 control subjects.
Bacterial overgrowth was found in about 4 percent of both IBS patients and control subjects, and correlated with enteric dysmotility (86 percent with SIBO versus 39 percent without SIBO). While patients with IBS had mildly increased bacterial counts compared with controls (43 versus 12 percent, respectively), there were no correlations between motility and symptom patterns.
"The data do not support an important role for SIBO according to commonly used clinical definitions, in IBS," the authors write. "However, mildly increased counts of small-bowel bacteria seem to be more common in IBS, and needs further investigation. Motility alterations could not reliably predict altered small-bowel bacterial flora."
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