Hypolactasia and the Irritable Colon Syndrome

Abstract

Jejunal biopsy with disaccharidase assay has been performed on 81 patients with the irritable colon syndrome. Most of the patients were British natives and of British stock. Nine of them (12.3%) had hypolactasia, a proportion which is only a little higher than has been found in healthy British volunteers and in other control subjects. A small number of subjects develop the irritable colon syndrome simply because of the underlying hypolactasia and such patients respond to a lactose-free diet; there were four such patients. In the others, the hypolactasia appears to be a coincidental finding. It is concluded that hypolactasia plays only a minor role in the aetiology of the irritable colon syndrome.

Key-words:

• Diarrhoea
• disaccharidases
• hypolactasia
• irritable colon syndrome
• lactose tolerance
• spastic colon