Dr. Amy Nett: Well, as Chris mentioned in the presentation, yeast is tested for on Cyrex Array 4, and he also talked about when you see yeast, what do you want to think about in terms of the common associations? Antibodies to yeast are associated with inflammatory bowel disease, so we’re talking about primarily Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis. So if you see antibodies to yeast on Array 4, certainly always look at the clinical picture, but consider further testing for inflammatory bowel disease. That’s why we’re specifically recommending stool testing for lysozyme, lactoferrin, and calprotectin, because those are going to help you differentiate between IBS-type disease and IBD, inflammatory bowel disease. If those come back positive, then you can continue going down that pathway with an inflammatory bowel disease panel.
Similarly, if you see antibodies to yeast, they may cross-react with components of the normal GI tissue, specifically healthy colon tissue, so you could also, in this case, think about testing for intestinal permeability. You might want to consider one of the intestinal permeability tests that we’ll be talking about soon as well.
It’s because we know of the association between yeast and IBD and because it can also cross-react with healthy colon tissue that we want to think about doing additional testing. Great question.