Absorption of carbohydrate from rice in Ascaris lumbricoides infected Burmese village children.

With the objective of determining the relationship between ascariasis and carbohydrate absorption from rice, breath hydrogen tests (BHT's) were performed in two study populations of Burmese village children. Using a rice test meal, breath hydrogen peaks greater than 10 ppm above baseline within 4 hours (indicating rice malabsorption) were seen in 24 out of 55 (44 per cent) Ascaris lumbricoides infected children and 3 out of 18 (17 per cent) non-infected children (age 18-59 months). In another ascaris endemic village 139 children (age 36-108 months) underwent a rice meal BHT. Seventy children had been regularly dewormed for 2 years (single dose levamisole 50 mg every 3 months) whilst 69 children had been dewormed once in 2 years, 6 weeks before breath testing. Regularly dewormed children showed a lower prevalence of rice malabsorption (33 per cent) compared to the control group (54 per cent) (P < 0.05). These findings suggest that malabsorption of carbohydrate from rice can occur during Ascaris lumbricoides infection in children.