Think wisely!

Most of the time, I blame edginess for erecting a barricade to my thought process, in fact, the causation as to why I'm dumb. The probability of me blurting out a stupefied answer whenever I'm nervous is almost 99%. Consequently, I'm not thinking. But when I do, I don't do it wisely.

So, we were discussing about Helicobacter pylori today and a question was set forth by the professor regarding urea breath test. What are the principles and mechanism behind the basis for this test? In this test, patient swallows a capsule containing urea made from an isotope of carbon. Not too tough to solve the chemical equation that urea is broken up and turned into carbon dioxide with the help of urease produced by H. pylori. Next, he was asking, how does the carbon dioxide get into the breath since it's called urea breath test? Here's the problem. How??!!

We thought for some time. None of us came up with anything. Alright, this flight of idea struck me. What's the fuss? Carbon dioxide is a gas and it's present in the stomach after the urea breakdown. Wouldn't it be released from the oropharynx in its gaseous form, urhh.. like... burping??!! And everyone agreed. It was irony when someone even took a big gulp of air in and burped. Like hey, exactly! That's how it works!

We googled it after class and here's what we found. "The carbon dioxide is absorbed across the lining of the stomach and into the blood. It then travels in the blood to the lungs where it is excreted in the breath. Samples of exhaled breath are collected, and the isotopic carbon in the exhaled carbon dioxide is measured." 

Now, can anyone just knock me hard on my head?? I'm thinking, but not wisely. In other words, stooopeeed!! How can I even think of burping out carbon dioxide mixed with breath? Physiologist taught me well perhaps. :S