CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF FECAL FAT ESTIMATION BY SINGLE STOOL METHOD

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the fecal fat determination newly deviced. The content of fat in the feces is usally expressed as grams per day. In order to obtain the representative daily output of fat, collection must be complete and must be made over a considerable period of time. In order to reduce the necessity for complete collections, we used continuous fecal markng with radioopaque pellet (ROP) or polyethylene glycol (PEG). These substances were given after each meals and the fat of a single stool sample was corrected from the number of ROP or the value of PEG in the stool to express the daily fecal fat. There was colse correlation between the fat of a single stool sample corrected by ROP or PEG and that obtained from a full 4-day balance study. Therefore, we assessed the reliability of estimating fecal fat output on a single stool by correction by ROP or PEG.