Vitamin B12 or cobalamin deficiency occurs frequently (> 20%) among elderly people, but it is often unrecognized because the clinical manifestations are subtle; they are also potentially serious, particularly from a neuropsychiatric and hematological perspective. Causes of the deficiency include, most frequently, food-cobalamin malabsorption syndrome (> 60% of all cases), pernicious anemia (15%...

Lactose malabsorption was studied by a breath hydrogen technique in 139 Samoan and 68 white schoolchildren. The Samoans were studied in four locations, two in Western Samoa and two in New Zealand, and the white children in both the Cook Islands and New Zealand. The prevalence of malabsorption varied with location: for Samoans it ranged from 41% to 60% in Western Samoa and 0% to 35% in New Zeala...

The association of malnutrition with chronic cardiac failure has been recognized for many years, and the occurrence of intestinal malabsorption was first recorded in 1938 when Bologna and Costadoni measured, by fat balance, the degree of steatorrhoea in 20 patients with congestive cardiac failure. Malabsorption of neutral fat has been repeatedly observed (Langen, 1953; Hakkila, Makela, and Halo...

BACKGROUND Chronic watery diarrhoea is one of the most common symptoms prompting GI evaluation. Recently, new diagnostic considerations have emerged as possible factors in chronic diarrhoea. AIM To review available data regarding diagnosis and treatment of chronic diarrhoea with an emphasis on bacterial overgrowth and bile acid malabsorption. METHODS A systematic search of the English langu...

BACKGROUND Carbohydrate malabsorption of lactose, fructose and sorbitol has already been described in normal volunteers and in patients with functional bowel complaints including irritable bowel syndrome. Elimination of the offending sugar(s) should result in clinical improvement. OBJECTIVE To examine the importance of carbohydrate malabsorption in outpatients previously diagnosed as having f...

The absorption of simultaneously administered equimolar doses of 14C vitamin D3 and 3H 25 hydroxyvitamin D3 (25-OH-D3) has been studied in controls and patients with a variety of gastrointestinal disorders. As assessed from peak radioactivity in the serum and from faecal excretion of radioactivity, malabsorption of both vitamin D3 and 25-OH-D3 occurred in patients with steatorrhoea. Malabsorpti...