Hereditary folate malabsorption (HFM, congenital malabsorption; OMIM#229050) is a rare, potentially treatable autosomal recessive disorder with multisystem involvement.1 It caused by homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations in SLC46A1 resulting loss of function proton-coupled transporter (PCFT),2 required for intestinal absorption and transport across choroid plexus.1,2 This leads to the d...

Concern exists that increasing fructose consumption, particularly in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, is resulting in increasing rates of fructose intolerance and aggravation of clinical symptoms in individuals with irritable bowel syndrome. Most clinical trials designed to test this hypothesis have used pure fructose, a form not commonly found in the food supply, often in quantities and c...

We report a case of the brown bowel syndrome presenting as major dilatation of the colon which resembled 'toxic dilatation' and necessitated subtotal colectomy. We confirm the reported association between the brown bowel syndrome, malabsorption, and hypovitaminosis E. Furthermore we document failure of the brown pigmentation to resolve after six months in spite of vitamin E supplements and corr...

Bile acid malabsorption is a common cause of chronic watery diarrhea; however, its role appears to be poorly appreciated among clinicians. As such, bile acid diarrhea remains an underrecognized cause of chronic diarrhea, resulting in many patients incorrectly diagnosed and interfering and delaying proper treatment. In this review, we briefly discuss the synthesis, enterohepatic circulation, and...

Concentrations of various gut hormones were measured after a test breakfast in eight patients with severe tropical malabsorption and 12 controls. The patients with tropical malabsorption had greatly raised basal plasma motilin and enteroglucagon concentrations, but their postprandial release of both gastric inhibitory polypeptide and insulin was significantly reduced. The pattern of gut hormone...

The plasma disappearance of intravenously administered tracer doses of tritium-labelled 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25OHD3) wa studied in six normal subjects and in 15 patients with intestinal malabsorption. The plasma half-life was significantly shorter and the clearance rate significantly greater in the group with malabsorption compared with the controls. One explanation for this increased eliminat...