Abstract
Objectives and study: In children with gastrointestinal (GI) disease, ongoing losses of endogenous proteins have been suggested as contributing to impairment of nutritional and immunologic status. Quantification of stool alpha-1 Antitrypsin (sAAT) excretion is established for estimation of enteric protein loss and assessment of disease activity. This study is to access the feasibility of the application of sAAT in pediatric patients with different GI diseases.
Methods: From 2000 to 2007, fecal materials for sAAT determination were obtained from patients in pediatric patients with different GI diseases. Values of sATT were correlated with diseases entities, stool pathogens and serum albumin.
Results: Data were available from 185 pediatric patients. 60% of chronic diarrhea patients had elevated sATT while 48% of acute diarrhea did (3.66 vs 4.63 mg/gm of dry stool weight, p=0.245). There were no difference between acute infectious diarrhea and acute non-infectious diarrhea (4.49 vs 4.85, p=0.789). Patients with colitis complicated with perforation were associated with much higher sATT levels. However, there was no significant difference regarding the etiologies between acute diarrhea and acute appendicitis /peritonitis (4.63 vs 3.82, p=0.716). In those patients with functional abdominal pain, sATT levels were alll normal. Higher sATT values were found in inflammatory bowel disease patients when compared with those with motility disorder (9.78 vs 1.92, p< 0.05). No correlations with age, duration of diarrhea, or serum albumin noted.
Conclusion: Our study indicates that sATT provide a useful and non-invasive tool to evaluate the damage severity of GI tract and monitor the progression of diseases.
Article PDF
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yeung, CY., Lee, HC., Chan, WT. et al. 763 Application of Stool Alpha-1 Antitrypsin in Pediatric Patients with Gastrointestinal Diseases. Pediatr Res 68 (Suppl 1), 386 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-00763
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-00763