Acid steatocrit: a reliable screening tool for steatorrhoea.

UNLABELLED

This study compared the acid steatocrit (AS) results of healthy children with those of sick children with and without gastrointestinal involvement. Stool samples of 166 children were investigated, comprising 50 healthy children, 26 asthma patients, and 90 patients with gastrointestinal problems divided into 34 treated cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, 16 untreated coeliac disease (CD) patients and 40 patients with various gastrointestinal problems. The median values (5th-95th percentile) of AS results were 3.3% (0.0-21%) for healthy children, 4.5% (1.8-22.5%) for asthma patients, 24.7% (2.6-68.2%) for treated CF patients with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, 19.8% (3-77.7%) for untreated CD patients and 5.5% (1.8-29%) for patients with various gastrointestinal diseases.

CONCLUSION

The AS results of treated CF patients with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency and untreated CD patients were similar and significantly higher than those of healthy children and asthma patients. AS can be considered to be a reliable tool in screening for steatorrhoea in paediatric patients.