Relationship between breath and total body hydrogen excretion rates in neonates

Our study examined the relationship of H2 excreted in breath to total body H2 excreted by neonates. We report simultaneously measured end-tidal H2 concentrations, plus breath H2 and total body H2 (breath H2 plus flatus H2) excretion rates in 10 neonates. End-tidal H2 concentrations varied from 2.4 to 192 ppm. Breath H2 excretion rates ranged from 0.20 to 6.5 and total body H2 excretion rates from 0.29 to 15.0 ml/h. The fractional breath H2 excretion in these infants was 48% (range 33-69%), compared with 21% reported in adults. The correlation coefficient for end-tidal derived H2 excretion and directly measured breath H2 excretion rates was 0.95 (p less than 0.001). We conclude that the proportion of total H2 excreted in the breath of neonates is increased compared with adults, suggesting that caution must be exercised when interpreting newborn breath H2 measurements and using adult norms.