Prospective pilot study on lactose intolerance, dietary habits and bone metabolism

The prospective pilot study on carbohydrate resorption disorders was implemented as a cooperation project between the University of Applied Sciences for Health Professions Upper Austria (Bachelor Programmes Biomedical Science and Dietetics) and the Hospital in Steyr (Institute for Medical and Chemical Laboratory Diagnostics).

According to current medical knowledge, carbohydrate resorption disorders are diagnosed using breath tests and partly with molecular genetic examination methods. Available scientific literature on this topic as well as experience from laboratory diagnostics show that in present diagnostic methods limitations may occur. Especially breath tests as a diagnostic tool show weaknesses. These are mainly in the pre-analytics and in the execution of the tests. Standardisation and evidence-based cut-off values, especially for the methane (CH4) breath test are not mentioned in scientific literature. In the prospective monocentric study, included patients are subjected to a standardised diagnostic procedure with use of a genetic test (LCT-13910 polymorphism) according to previously uniformly defined criteria.

In current literature there are only a few studies which show deficiency symptoms occurring in connection with food intolerances (carbohydrate resorption disorders), e.g. in the area of bone metabolism. Therefore, in addition to the routine genetic examination for lactose malabsorption, the bone metabolism parameters 25-Hydroxyvitamin D, CrossLaps in serum are also investigated. Students of the Dietetics programme accomplished a questionnaire survey related to nutritional behaviour and food frequency of the participants. Students as well as teaching staff of the Biomedical Science and Dietetics courses were involved in the project with regard to scientific preparation, data collection, processing and evaluation of the data.

• Project team: Klaus Nigl M.A., Thomas Knoll MHPE, Elisabeth Rosenberger, M.A.; Marianne Tammegger, MBA; Doris Brandstätter, BSc, Nicole Mayr, BSc
• Partner: Institute for Medical and Chemical Laboratory Diagnostics at the Hospital in Steyr (Dr. Dietmar Enko)

Publications/Lecturing activities:

• Enko D, Kriegshäuser G, Stolba R, et al (2016). Assessment of vitamin D status and serum CrossLaps levels in adults with primary lactose malabsorption. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Vol 70, pages 1000–1003