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THE Norwegian National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES) has developed a new method that makes it easier to study the clinical picture of patients with food hypersensitivity.
Methods currently used to study patients with food hypersensitivity include tissue sampling from the intestine (biopsies), which can be painful and stressful.
NIFES has developed a method that quickly measures the hormone serotonin in fluids used to flush the intestines. This method makes it easier to study this patient group.
Even though 10-15% of the adult population in Norway believe they suffer from food hypersensitivity, biopsies and ordinary allergy tests demonstrate food allergies in only around 10% of these. This means that the cause of the patients' symptoms often remains unknown, which causes many people a great deal of concern.
Research shows that an increased concentration of serotonin and other inflammation markers in the intestines are related to discomfort in the stomach and intestinal region.
The patients at Haukeland University Hospital (HUH) receive two litres of a fluid consisting of water and unabsorbable sugar directly into the small intestine using a tube. The fluid flushes the intestines and is collected after it has passed through the entire intestinal system. It is then filtered and centrifuged, ending up as a clear fluid. The clear fluid is injected in a chromatograph coupled to a mass spectrometer.
"Based on the results one can easily and precisely measure the levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin which is flushed out of the intestine. We anticipate that this method may help explain the patients' symptoms and help increase our understanding of food hypersensitivity," says Kine Gregersen, who studies food hypersensitivity at NIFES as part of her doctoral thesis work in the Seafood and Health Research Programme.
"The method can for instance also be used to measure the level of serotonin in the intestines after a meal of seafood."
The participants in the study were patients who had reported discomfort after eating, but who after a thorough examination at HUH still had not been diagnosed with food allergy. The project is a collaboration with HUH, which is unique in Norway with its interdisciplinary approach to examining these patients.
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