Vitamin A absorption was studied in a group of 28 adult patients with ascariasis and 12 healthy adult controls, using a simplified vitamin A absorption test. In over 70% of the patients with ascariasis malabsorption of vitamin A was demonstrated. Stool egg counts for ascaris were not related to the degree of vitamin A malabsorption. Of the 23 patients in whom a D-xylose absorption test was performed, seven showed excretion less than 20% in 5 hr. Immediately after expulsion of the worms, vitamin A absorption improved in 13 out of 14 patients tested (in nine to normal level). The results of this study suggest that ascariasis in populations on marginal intakes of vitamin A and its precursors is an important contributing factor in producing clinical vitamin A deficiency.

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SUMMARY The study describes gastric acid secretory response to a rice-based and a wheat-based meal over a prolonged period of five hours and buffer content of the stomach in five normal and seven duodenal ulcer subjects from the rice-eating eastern Indian population. The results suggest that (1) the meal-mediated gastric acid secretory response in duodenal ulcer subjects is much higher than in the controls, even though the histamine stimulated response is similar, (2) the type of meal, whether rice and fish based or wheat and meat based, does not influence the acid secretory response, and (3) the duodenal ulcer subjects in this area, two hours after a meal, have a buffer capacity similar to the controls.Duodenal ulcer disease in the Indian subcontinent is more common in the rice-eating belt and uncommon in the wheat-eating areas (Malhotra, 1964). Our studies on in-vitro hydrogen ion binding by different cereals have shown that cooked wholewheat flour and cooked bran have a higher hydrogen ion binding capacity than cooked rice (Jalan et al., 1977). In view of these findings, the present study was designed to investigate the gastric acid secretory response and the buffer capacity of the stomach two hours after a meal in five normal and seven duodenal ulcer subjects, to a rice-and a wheat-based meal similar to the ones consumed by the Eastern and Northern Indian people. Methods SUBJECTSThe study group consisted of 12 male subjects of whom five acted as controls (mean age 26-4 years, range 21-33 years; mean body weight 53 kg, range 41 3-68-5 kg) and the rest were suffering from duodenal ulcer confirmed by radiology, with no outlet obstruction (mean age 36-8 years, range 30-42 years; mean weight 60-8 kg, range 504-74 kg). None of the patients received any treatment before the study.