Diagnostic Significance of d.Xylose Excretion Test

1H NMR spectroscopic method for diagnosis of malabsorption syndrome: a pilot study

“…20,21 However, many of these studies included patients with MAS and healthy controls. 21,22 A test with high specificity to discriminate between patients with severe MAS and healthy subjects may not have the same specificity to discriminate between mild MAS and a group of patients with other diseases but no MAS, such as IBS, as absorption of D-xylose not only depends on structural or functional integrity of mucosa but also on gastric emptying and intestinal transit. 4,23 Patients with dyspepsia and IBS are known to have altered gastric emptying and intestinal transit.…”

Malabsorption of small doses of castor oil in patients without steatorrhoea.

“…Anaemia, with the associated tissue hypoxia, interferes with cellular and enzymatic activity. Xylose absorption is impaired in pernicious anaemia (Helmer and Fouts, 1937;Bezman, Kinnear, and Zamcheck, 1959;Fowler and Cooke, 1960). Iron deficiency of a chronic and severe degree has long been known to be associated with gastric atrophy (Witts, 1930) and various degrees of chronic gastritis and gastric atrophy have been demonstrated in about 74% of patients with iron-deficiency anaemia (Davidson and Markson, 1955).…”

Urinary xylose excretion in steatorrhoea

“…They are said to decline with advancing age (Fowler and Cooke, 1960;Finlay and Wightman, 1958). In our control subjects there was also a slight decrease noted in those over 50 but in no case was the level below 5 g. Moreover, the average value in the older control group was still nearly two and a half times greater than in patients in the idiopathic steatorrhoea group whose average age was over 50.…”