Starch malabsorption and breath gas excretion in healthy humans consuming low- and high-starch diets.

Dietary starch delivery to the colon and excretion in stools and the ability of unabsorbed carbohydrates to promote hydrogen and methane release in breath were evaluated in 6 volunteers during two 8-day periods on starch diets of 100 and 300 g, respectively. Significantly less starch was recovered from the terminal ileum by aspiration per 24 h during the low-starch period (4.1 +/- 0.

[New treatments of hemorrhagic rectocolitis].

The treatment of ulcerative colitis has benefited from the development of new molecules (azo-disalicylates) or new galenic forms (Pentasa, Azacol...

Pathophysiological study of diarrhoea in a patient with medullary thyroid carcinoma. Evidence against a secretory mechanism and for the role of shortened colonic transit time.

Intubation techniques and scintigraphic studies were used to determine the origin and mechanism of diarrhoea in a patient with medullary thyroid carcinoma, high plasma immunoreactive calcitonin and normal circulating serotonin, substance P and prostaglandins E2 and F2 alpha. Normal function of the small intestine was found for the following: (a) absorption tests; (b) water and electrolyte absorption in the proximal jejunum; (c) 24 hour flow rate and composition of fluid entering the colon and (d) gastric emptying rate and small intestinal progression of a normal meal. By contrast, colonic function was markedly impaired in three ways: (a) water absorption was decreased by half; (b) as the main excreted solutes were organic acids, a large electrolyte gap was recorded in faecal water, and (c) colonic transit time of the meal marker was very short, and was in agreement with the rapid transit of ingested radioopaque markers.

Starch absorption by healthy man evaluated by lactulose hydrogen breath test.

The amounts of hydrogen produced from starch and lactulose were compared to assess the accuracy of the hydrogen breath test with lactulose as standard to quantify starch malabsorption. The mean amounts of hydrogen produced from starch and lactulose were not different in fecal homogenates and in breath excretion after carbohydrate infusions into the cecum. Known amounts of starch infused into the cecum of 18 subjects were compared with amounts calculated from the total excess excretion of hydrogen in breath computed in relation to hydrogen production after the ingestion of 10 g lactulose; calculated amounts were 3.

[Neurological manifestations in relation to vitamin E deficiency, caused by a defect of biliary acid synthesis].

A progressive neurological syndrome with cerebellar signs, abnormal proprioception, areflexia and Babinski response was observed in a child with chronic intestinal malabsorption. There was no ophtalmoplegia or retinitis pigmentosa. Electromyography and biopsy showed no axonopathy or myopathy.

Translocation of strictly anaerobic bacteria from the intestinal tract to the mesenteric lymph nodes in gnotobiotic rodents.

Viable cells of some strictly anaerobic strains belonging to Bacteroides, Clostridium and Fusobacterium genera were present in mesenteric lymph nodes of gnotobiotic rodents harbouring these strains. Various parameters were found to affect the incidence of translocation, including the caecal population level, the length of association with the host and the nature of the strains and host.

[Role of the digestive tract immune system in the control of bacterial translocation in gnotoxenic mice].

The aim of this work was to study the role of gut associated lymphoid tissue in the control of bacterial translocation. Two strains of Escherichia coli were orally inoculated to 71 axenic mice. Ten days after, the 2 initial strains and 2 others, resulting from plasmidic exchanges, were present in the digestive tract of the mice which were divided in two groups: the first group (n = 41) received one intraperitoneal injection of cyclophosphamide 100 mg/kg; the second control group (n = 30) received isotonic saline.

Idiopathic chronic watery diarrhea from excluded rectosigmoid with goblet cell hyperplasia cured by restoration of large bowel continuity.

A 73-year-old woman developed abnormal electrolyte and water loss from an excluded rectosigmoid segment after surgical treatment of a volvulus of the sigmoid colon. Rectal discharges lasted almost for a year, until it spontaneously resolved after restoration of large bowel continuity. Despite extensive investigation, including endoscopic, radiologic, microscopic, bacteriologic and parasitic examinations, no satisfactory explanation of the diarrhea could be found.

Gastric form of alpha chain disease.

A case of alpha chain disease, involving the stomach only, is reported in an Algerian man suffering from epigastric pains. Upper digestive tract fibreoptic endoscopy showed two antral ulcers and an ulcerative gastritis pattern, which promptly disappeared with cimetidine treatment. Antral biopsies at a distance from the ulcers, but not of the ulcer crater itself, disclosed a dense infiltration of antral lamina propria by mature or sometimes atypical plasma cells.

Digestive tract and renal small vessel hyalinosis, idiopathic nonarteriosclerotic intracerebral calcifications, retinal ischemic syndrome, and phenotypic abnormalities. A new familial syndrome.

A new familial syndrome that affected 3 of 7 siblings is described. All 3 patients were young women with a very peculiar phenotype, poikilodermia and hair greying, and idiopathic nonarteriosclerotic cerebral calcifications. Pathological studies demonstrated a marked and progressive hyalinosis involving capillaries and often arterioles and small veins of the digestive tract, kidneys, and calcified areas of the brain.

[Influence of Saccharomyces boulardii on jejunal secretion in rats induced by cholera toxin].

The effects of a suspension of Saccharomyces boulardii cells on water and sodium secretion induced by cholera toxin was measured in male Wistar rats weighing 220-260 g, using the isolated jejunal loop technique. Concentrations per ml of 3.1 X 10(9), 2.

Colonic metabolism of wheat starch in healthy humans. Effects on fecal outputs and clinical symptoms.

To study the intracolonic digestion of starch, 5 healthy volunteers were maintained on a constant diet for 7 days. On the fourth day, the cecum was intubated and a suspension of raw wheat starch (50 g, in 500 ml of 154 mM NaCl and containing 10 g of polyethylene glycol 4000) was infused into the distal ileum at 2 ml/min. Hydrogen excretion in breath was measured, cecal contents were sampled, and symptoms were recorded.

[Alpha-chain disease].

The pathological and clinical features of alpha-chain disease, its immunological diagnosis, the structural abnormalities of the abnormal immunoglobulin A compared with those of proteins of gamma and mu heavy chains diseases, the course of the disease and its present treatment, the epidemiological factors involved and their influence on pathogenesis and finally, the relationship with the "Mediterranean abdominal lymphoma" or IPSID are successively described. The stress has been placed on the latest data which refine but no not modify the first description of the disease. In the same way as studies on the synthesis and structure of proteins in heavy chain diseases will provide new data on the biosynthesis of normal immunoglobulins, so the elucidation of sequential events leading from a plasmocytic stage reversible by antibiotic therapy alone to a highly malignant immunoblastic stage should improve our knowledge of the genesis of human lymphomas.

Bioavailability, gastrointestinal transit, solubilization and faecal excretion of ursodeoxycholic acid in man.

The bioavailability of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), a cholesterolic gallstone dissolving agent, has been analysed in seven healthy human volunteers. After absorption of a capsule containing a 500 mg dose, the time course of plasma concentrations of the drug presented a double peak profile over a 240 min period. In order to explain this result, a second group of five subjects bearing a four-way jejunal catheter fitted with an occluding balloon, received an oral dose of 250, 500 or 750 mg of the drug.