Fecal fat excretion rate in patient with Crohn's disease

Compare the diet containing 50g/day of fat with the additional 50g/day butter fat during elemental diet

Abstract

Fecal fat excretion rate was determined by the method of Van de Kamer in 31 patients with Crohn's disease and six healthy controls, when fed by the diet containing 50g/day of fat. Patients with jejuno-ileitis and those with partial and extensive resection showed a significantly greater excretion rate compared with patients with ileitis and healthycontrols, however, there was no significant difference between patients with ileitis and helthycontrols.
In this study, the fecel excretion rate was less than 10g/day in non-operated cases. Our results seems to be smaller than those in previous studies from the western countries.
Fecel fat excretion rate was determined in 12 patients with non-operated Crohn's disease and six healthy controls, when fed by the additional 50g/day butter fat during the elemental diet. With ingestion of the additional 50g/day butter fat during elemental diet, fecal fat excretion rate was significantly increased in the patients with non-operated Crohn's disease than the results of the diet containing 50g/day fat, but not significantly changed in the healthy controls.
This result suggest that determination of fecal fat excretion rate with fed by the additional 50 g/day butter fat during elemental diet is a useful test for detecting a mild fat malabsorption in non-operated Crohn's disease.