1/4. giardiasis with protein-losing enteropathy: diagnosis by fecal alpha 1-antitrypsin determination.giardia lamblia infection was documented by jejunal biopsy in a previously healthy 2-year-old boy with acute onset of hypoproteinemia due to protein-losing enteropathy. All symptoms and abnormal laboratory findings resolved with anti-Giardia therapy. This is only the second case report of giardiasis with documented protein-losing enteropathy. Further application of the fecal alpha 1-antitrypsin assay may help to clarify the relationship between Giardia infection and protein-losing enteropathy and its role in development of malnutrition.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = malnutrition (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/4. Weanling diarrhea: a case report.This case report describes a 14-month-old Guatemalan boy suffering from diarrhea and malnutrition. He had been healthy and experienced normal growth until weaning, which began at six months of age. Introduction of semisolid foods at this time was accompanied by bouts of diarrhea and a reduced growth rate. After admission to hospital at 14 months of age, he was found to have protein-energy malnutrition of the edematous type (kwashiorkor) and to be infected with Giardia lamblia. Therapy with metronidazole and a high-protein diet resulted in satisfactory weight gain and cessation of the diarrhea.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 2keywords = malnutrition (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/4. Malabsorption: common causes and their practical diagnosis.Malabsorption may present as non-specific ill health and malnutrition in the elderly. Outside major medical centers, however, investigation is often thought to be difficult and unrewarding, and screening tests unreliable. Therefore, a direct approach is suggested to identify treatable small bowel disease in those elderly patients with a clinical possibility of malabsorption. It is based on the use of plain abdominal x-ray, endoscopy with duodenal biopsy, and small bowel meal.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = malnutrition (Clic here for more details about this article) |
4/4. Tropical sprue in travelers and expatriates living abroad.Changes in the world political situation, the rapidity of transportation, and the availability of effective therapy have altered the pattern of sprue in persons going to the tropics. Gone, for the most part, are the days when expatriates liver for years in tropical areas, progressed on the full-blown pattern of debilitating disease when they acquired sprue, and then were never totally cured either by return home or by the then-available forms of therapy. Today, visitors to the tropics usually return home by jet aircraft within weeks or months after acquiring the disease, and thus they present just with manifestations of small bowel disease in the absence of nutritional deficiencies. In this circumstance, the differential diagnosis usually lies between sprue and giardiasis. Both of these disorders are caused by chronic contamination of the small bowel by enteric pathogens, and both can be cured by specific therapy directed at eradicating these organisms. In contrast to the situation in travelers, sprue among the indigenous population of the tropics remains largely unchanged: a chronic debilitating disorder that represents a significant contributory factor to the pathogenesis of morbidity and malnutrition in some areas.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = malnutrition (Clic here for more details about this article) |