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SUMMARY Intestinal transit times in children less than 3 years old with gastroenteritis were measured using carmine suspension and radioopaque pellets. Carmine transit times were short as expected in the acute illness, and lengthened on recovery to the values found in children without diarrhoea. Pellet transit times of the sick children were the same as those of controls without bowel disease. Solid markers may thus be misleading in acute diarrhoeal illness of childhood. Possible mechanisms are discussed.

STJMMARYThe flora of both faeces and small bowel lumen was studied in children with gastroenteritis from London, England, and Kingston, Jamaica.Clinical and laboratory differences between these two groups are described. All bacterial groups in the faeces were greatly altered during gastroenteritis and this particularly affected anaerobic organisms. These changes generally reverted rapidly to normal after the illness.The small bowel flora was also altered during gastroenteritis; there was a tendency for a wider range of organisms including anaerobes to be isolated from the children in Jamacia than from those in England.

To define the role of gastrin, if any, in the response of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) to bethanechol, serum gastrin determinations and LES pressure measurements were made in controls, patients with vagotomy and antrectomy (V&A), and patients with vagotomy and pyloroplasty (V&P). Despite significant differences in mean basal serum gastrin levels no differences were found in mean resting LES pressures among these groups. In controls significant increases in LES pressure occurred after subcutaneous bethanechol, but serum gastrin levels did not change from basal values. Subcutaneous injections of bethanechol produced significantly greater increases in LES pressures in V&P patients than in V&A patients. Serum gastrin levels did not change in either group; however, background serum gastrin concentrations were significantly greater for V&P patients than V&A patients throughout the study. Intravenous infusion of human gastrin I heptadecapeptide in controls significantly increased sphincter responses to bethanechol. Thus, these studies provide evidence to suggest that the LES response to bethanechol is affected by background serum gastrin levels.

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