A review of laboratory tests of intestinal absorption in the tropics
Falaiye, J.M.
Tropical and Geographical Medicine 28(3): 175-180
1976
ISSN/ISBN: 0041-3232 PMID: 1006783 Document Number: 104520
The intestinal absorptive capacity for xylose and folic acid is frequently defective in apparently normal asymptomatic residents of the tropics. This suggest the presence among the natives of the tropics of appreciable, yet asymptomatic jejunal functional incompetence which is not seen in temperate countries. Structural abnormalities in the villi which are nonspecific occur in varying degrees of severity in the tropics both in health and in disease. These tropical peculiarities raise obvious doubts as to the diagnostic usefulness of those laboratory tests in the evaluation of disorders of absorption in tropical practice. In this review, experiences from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital had shown that estimation of fat in faeces for the detection of steatorrhoea is the most dependable single diagnostic aid in studies of overt malabsorption in Nigeria.