Disaccharidase activities, jejunal morphology, and carbohydrate tolerance in children with chronic diarrhea.

Children with chronic diarrhea were examined for their carbohydrate tolerance, small bowel morphology, and specific disaccharidase activities to determine whether disaccharidase enzymatic activity is related to villus height and thus may be viewed as an independent variable that controls digestive capacity. Results indicated that 65-78% of all abnormal biopsy samples had specific disaccharidase activities that fell within the normal range. Clinical disaccharide tolerance studies indicated that specific enzyme activity did not correlate with disaccharide tolerance.