Acid steatocrit: a reliable screening tool for steatorrhoea

This study compared the acid steatocrit (AS) results of healthy children wi th those of sick children with and without gastrointestinal involvement. St ool samples of 166 children were investigated, comprising 50 healthy childr en, 26 asthma patients, and 90 patients with gastrointestinal problems divi ded into 34 treated cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, 16 untreated coeliac disease (CD) patients and 40 patients w ith various gastrointestinal problems. The median values (5th-95th percenti le) of AS results were 3.3% (0.0-21%) for healthy children, 4.5% (1.8-22.5% ) for asthma patients, 24.7% (2.6-68.2%) for treated CF patients with exocr ine pancreatic insufficiency, 19.8% (3-77.7%) for untreated CD patients and 5.5% (1.8-29%) for patients with various gastrointestinal diseases. Conclusion: The AS results of treated CF patients with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency and untreated CD patients were similar and significantly high er than those of healthy children and asthma patients. AS can be considered to be a reliable tool in screening for steatorrhoea in paediatric patients .