Serum pepsinogen I (PG I) levels were determined by radioimmunoassay in 23 children with peptic ulcer disease (PUD) before and after treatment with ranitidine and in 44 children who were being investigated for recurrent abdominal pain. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy was performed in all. No lesions were detected in controls, while 18 patients showed a duodenal ulcer, 4 had an antral ulcer, and 1 had both. An 8-week course of ranitidine healed PUD in 93.5% of them, while long-term (1-5 years) endoscopic follow-up showed a 41.9% ulcer relapse rate after stopping treatment. Gastric acid secretion after pentagastrin stimulation [maximal acid output (MAO)] was tested in all controls and in 22 PUD patients: While controls had normal MAO values for their age, 65% of patients had a secretion above the normal range. No significant correlation was detected between serum PG I and MAO either in controls or in patients. Mean serum PG I concentrations were not significantly higher in the whole patient group than in controls, but PUD patients who relapsed after discontinuing ranitidine treatment had shown on admission significantly higher PG I levels when compared both with those who did not relapse and with controls. All patients who relapsed, but only 42.8% of those who did not, had a serum PG I concentration above the normal upper limit for a pediatric population (56.7 ng/ml). None of the PUD patients who had serum PG I levels under this limit relapsed. Our results suggest that pretreatment serum PG I levels in children with PUD may predict fairly accurately which will not relapse after attaining ulcer healing by a short-term ranitidine course.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Celiac disease in Piedmont. An epidemiological-clinical study].

The incidence of coeliac disease (CD) was calculated on 304 patients under eighteen who were born in the city of Turin and its province in the years 1975-1989; the prevalence on 494 patients who live in the Piedmont Region. The mean crude yearly incidence was 0.511/1000 (1:1957 live birth). It varied from year to year, reaching minimum values in the years 1984-1987. In a contemporary epidemiological study, the mean crude incidence of CD in Italy was 1.2/1000 (1:833 live birth) twice the rate observed in Turin. The prevalence of paediatric CD in Piedmont was 113 per million inhabitants. Since CD has a normal life expectancy, its prevalence may be expected to increase. In the provinces of Novara, Alessandria and Asti CD prevalence was lower than in the others. Mean age at onset was 6 mos in 1975 and increased to 34 mos in 1989. Mean age at diagnosis was 15 mos in 1981, and 7 yrs in 1989. Symptoms were more numerous and severe in patients under 12 mos of age, and became fewer and often atypical in older children. We can therefore speculate that the trend towards a decreasing incidence of CD in recent years my be due to delayed diagnosis.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Adherence to a diet and the social aspects of patients with celiac disease].

We studied the social behaviour and dietary habits of 335 coeliacs older than 6 yrs diagnosed in our paediatric gastroenterology unit by a mailed questionnaire, 156 patients (45.2%) answered all questions; their median age was 14.7 yrs (range 6-29). We found that the disease does not compromise educational achievement and working capacity of patients. A majority of our coeliacs are students (from primary school to university) and rather successful ones since 55% of them passed their previous year examinations. Some are already employed and work as clerks, artisans, masons or skilled workers. 89.6% of our patients reported to be on a strict gluten-free diet, 9% introduce small amounts of gluten and 1.4% are on a normal diet by their own decision. Coeliac patients originating from Northern Italy have more of their gluten-free foods home made and use more gliadin free cereals (rice, maize), whereas coeliacs originating from the Southern regions consume more ready made gluten-free foods. We have assessed the amount of gluten-free products consumed monthly by our patients and their food preferences. Females eat less than males and prefer bread and flour based dishes, whereas males east more pasta and biscuits.

Age Factors↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Importance of oral rehydration in acute infantile diarrhea. Comparison of 2 rehydration solutions].

Oral rehydration therapy has gained worldwide acceptance as the standard treatment for acute diarrhoeal diseases in infants and children. Besides the high sodium glucose-electrolyte solution based on the WHO/UNICEF recommendations, many diverse formulations of oral rehydration solutions (ORS) have withstood the trial of prolonged clinical use, their main differences concerning the concentration of sodium, the choice of the glycidic component, the use of bicarbonate as buffer or its substitution with acetate or citrate. It was recently hypothesized that glucose polymers-containing ORS markedly improve the intestinal sodium/glucose cotransport by delivering glucose at its critical site on the luminal villous membrane and therefore diminish stool output and duration of the diarrhoea. To investigate this hypothesis, the efficacies of two marketed ORS (table I), one containing sucrose and maltodextrin (solution A) and the other containing glucose (solution B) were compared. The study group comprised 13 infants and toddlers, 1 to 18 months old, who presented with acute diarrhea; 5 were males and 8 females; 7 were randomly allocated to receive solution A (Group A), 6 solution B (Group B). There were no significant differences between the groups in age, sex, causation of diarrhea or severity of dehydration before receiving ORS. Both groups showed a satisfactory response to 24 hours of treatment with either ORS, but a significantly lower stool output (number and global weight of stools) and higher blood glucose and bicarbonate levels were detected in group A (table II).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Diarrhea, Infantile↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Campylobacter pylori and gastroduodenal pathology in children].

Since Warren and Marshall rediscovered in 1983 the presence of a spiral microorganism on the gastric mucosa, and named it Campylobacter Pylori (CP), its significance and characteristics have been largely studied. CP has fulfilled Koch's postulates, which need to proven before a microorganism can be said to cause a disease. The natural source of infection is unknown, but in human volunteer studies, ingestion of a suspension of CP was followed by the development of severe dyspepsia associated with colonization of gastric antrum and histologically proven gastritis B. CP is found overying the gastric epithelium, in the gastric crypts and in the mucus gel layer that protects it from gastric acid. There it causes infiltration of the mucosa by polymorphonuclear leucocytes and mononuclear cells, and mucin depletion. It is found in 60-70% of children with chronic active antral gastritis and can cause various lesions of upper intestinal tract, like esophagitis, duodenitis and gastric or duodenal ulcers. Several tests have been proposed to detect serum antibody against CP, but they are not yet commercially available. Breath test with C 13 or C 14-urea are promising, but up to now the diagnosis can be made only by upper G.I. endoscopy and antral biopsy. A pseudopolypoid antral gastritis seems to be the peculiar lesion caused by CP, but in children it is present only in 40% of cases. CP is easily seen in antral biopsies by Giemsa or Hematoxylin-Eosin staining, or can be cultured in Skirrow's agar under microaerophilic conditions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Up-date on the etiopathogenesis of celiac disease].

Wheat, oat, rye and barley flours are toxic for celiac patients. Prevalence and incidence of Celiac Disease (CD), quite variable from country to country, are very high in Austria (1 out of 476 born alive) and low in France (1 out of 41.667 born alive). This difference is probably due to its multifactorial genesis. In a multicentric Italian study, histocompatibility antigens of HLA complex II were typed in 460 CD children. DR3 was present in 63% of the cases (Relative Risk = RR: 6.8), DR7 in 67% (RR: 3.8) and DR3/DR7 in 22.5% (RR: 10.5), while in 7.7 of patients both antigens were absent. Therefore in a certain percentage of CD patients these risk antigens are absent, while in the normal population they can be present. The probability of CD increases when HLA DR3 and DR7 are present (but their absence cannot exclude the disease. The main etiological factor is gluten and its fractions (B, B1, B2, fraction 9 etc.). It seems that breast feeding can prevent or delay the onset of CD, while the age at gluten introduction does not modify the risk. Pathogenetic mechanisms are still under discussion: 3 theories are under investigation. 1) Enzymatic theory: a proteolytic enzyme for gluten digestion could be lacking. This theory is not yet proven, while Bruce et al. found in the jejunal mucosa of CD patients an elevation of a transglutaminase, which binds the gluten to enterocytes. Its level does not seem to vary with the diet. 2) Lectinic theory: the gluten bind the enterocyte membrane by a lectinic mechanism and damage it.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Celiac Disease↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Clinico-histological behavior of celiac patients after gluten load following the definitive diagnosis].

In the last 18 years we have followed 330 children with Coeliac Disease (CD), diagnosed according to the ESPGAN criteria (with 3 jejunal biopsies: during the acute phase, after a gluten-free diet and after a gluten challenge). One to fifteen years after the diagnosis, 61 of them asked to be exposed to a second gluten challenge to see if their intolerance was persistent. Ten percent of them had already started the challenge by themselves, the others were on Gluten Free Diet (GFD). To all 61 serial clinical controls, one-hour-blood-xylose absorption test every three months and a jejunal biopsy was suggested. The jejunal biopsy was performed when symptoms recurred, or when xylose-test showed an impaired absorption, or after 2 years. If the first jejunal biopsy showed a villous atrophy the GFD was restarted, while if a normal mucosa was found the gluten challenge was continued and the jejunal biopsy repeated every year. 52 children (85%) showed a villous atrophy after 1.5 to 72 months. 6 (10%) did not show a clinical or histological relapse, 2 refused the jejunal biopsy because symptomless, and 1 had to restart the GFD because she developed a dermatitis herpetiformis. One-hour-blood-xylose test was performed in 29 children and 20 (69%) showed a low absorbtion, the majority of them in the first year of challenge, and the remaining refused it. 36 of the relapsed children presented with mild clinical symptoms while 16 were symptomless.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Jejunal biopsy].

Considering many years' experience in various centres, the authors evidence indications, contraindications, and possible technical inconveniences relative to jejunum biopsy. They analyze various aspects concerning the rightest methods of performance particularly concerning the patient's sedation and immobilization, the local anaesthesia of the back pharynx, techniques facilitating the placement of the capsule the sampling of the mucosa (mucous membrane) and the recovery of the capsule. Then the authors examine the criteria of evaluation of the biopsy sample through both stereomicroscopical and traditional microscopical examinations. They analyze the main parameters in the histological evaluation of biopsy and the basic conditions to observe in order to evaluate histological aspects correctly. Finally they propose a score of histological evaluation, for quick, easy routine use; its results can be reproduced in accordance with traditional histological reading which allows examiners from different centres to confirm their judgements about the atrophy of the mucosa and enables more significant comparisons in case of biopsy repeated on the same subject.

Atrophy↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Self care in celiac disease].

The need for patients with coeliac disease to be introduced to a self-management program is well established. This program frequently raises some problems for young patients in relation to social condition and personal habits, and to the life and culture of their community. Data from a questionnaire given to 62 young patients show a strong interest in self-management and in periodic meetings. Some problems usually arise only on early adolescence (12/15 years).

Adolescent↗