Abstract
143 patients (70 patients with Crohn's disease, II with ulcerative colitis, 40 with an intestinal by-pass operation, 9 with non-tropical sprue, 10 with short bowel syndrome, and 3 with other gastrointestinal diseases) were studied during a metabolic regime including a fixed oral supply of 70 g fat, 800 mg calcium, and 200 mg oxalate. Faecal fat, 47Ca-absorption, 14C-oxalate absorption, and renal oxalate excretion were measured, and in the majority of patients a 14C-glyco-cholic acid breath test was also performed. 47Ca-absorption was practically identical (r 0.92), whether determined by whole-body counting or from the accumulation of absorbed 47Ca in the skeleton of the underarm. 14C-oxalate absorption and renal oxalate excretion agreed well (r 0.85). Steatorrhoea correlated weakly with renal oxalate excretion (r — 0.63, p < 0.001), whereas no correlation was present between facecal fat and calcium absorption or between oxalate and calcium absorption under the constant conditions prevailing during the study. It is recommended that a ‘trifixed” regime with absorption studies of fat, calcium, and oxalate be undertaken previous to a therapy that aims at a reduction of steatorrhoea or hyperoxaluria or an improvement of calcium absorption in chronic malabsorption syndromes, not least because therapy of these categories of patients most often continues for years.