Vitamin B12absorption and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency in childhood

✍ Scribed by H. K. Harms; O. Kennel; R. M. Bertele; F. Bidlingmeier; A. Böhne

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1981
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 366 KB
• Volume: 136
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0340-6997
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00441715

✦ Synopsis

The absorption of vitamin B]2, labelled with radioactive 5SCo, was measured in 19 patients with cystic fibrosis and one child with the Shwachman-Diamond syndrome using the whole body counting technique. We found vitamin B 12 absorption reduced to 7.97% on average, compared to 59.2% for the control group. The low vitamin B~2 absorption correlated well with the reduced fat retention coefficients. After adding 0.212 pancreatin to the radioactive vitamin Bt~ test dose, the absorption quotas improved in all cases, the average being 61%. A meal poor in vitamin Baa tended to increase the absorption of the radioactive test dose to 23% on average. As yet there is no satisfactory explanation for the effect of the diet on the absorption of vitamin B 12 in exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. This could be the reason why the malabsorption of vitamin B12 in patients with EPI can go unnoticed for many years and could possibly explain why vitamin B12 malabsorption in exocrine pancreatic insufficiency does not cause symptoms and signs of vitamin B12 deficiency for many years.