malabsorption
Sign in to saveMalabsorption is a state arising from abnormality in absorption of food nutrients across the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Impairment can be of single or multiple nutrients depending on the abnormality. This may lead to malnutrition and a variety of anaemias.
Key facts
- Medical condition (new).name
- Malabsorption
- Medical condition (new).image
- whipple2.jpg
- Medical condition (new).caption
- Whipple's disease: Alcian blue with apparently eosin counterstain enlarged villus with many macrophages
- Medical condition (new).field
- Gastroenterology
- Medical condition (new).complications
- Malnutrition; anaemia; steatorrhoea; diarrhoea
- Medical condition (new).causes
- Coeliac disease; short bowel syndrome; lactase deficiency; exocrine pancreatic insufficiency; small intestinal bacterial overgrowth; Whipple's disease; genetic diseases; certain medications
- Medical condition (new).treatment
- Depends on cause
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
18 sectionsContents
- Signs and symptoms
- Gastrointestinal manifestations
- Extraintestinal manifestations
- Presentation
- Causes
- Pathophysiology
- Diagnosis
- Classification
- Blood tests
- Stool studies
- Radiological studies
- Interventional studies
- Other investigations
- Obsolete tests no longer used clinically
- Management
- See also
- References
- External links
Malabsorption is a state arising from abnormality in absorption of food nutrients across the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Impairment can be of single or multiple nutrients depending on the abnormality. This may lead to malnutrition and a variety of anaemias.
Normally the human gastrointestinal tract digests and absorbs dietary nutrients with remarkable efficiency. A typical Western diet ingested by an adult in one day includes approximately 100 g of fat, 400 g of carbohydrate, 100 g of protein, 2 L of fluid, and the required sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, vitamins, and other elements. Salivary, gastric, intestinal, hepatic, and pancreatic secretions add an additional 7–8 L of protein-, lipid-, and electrolyte-containing fluid to intestinal contents. This massive load is reduced by the small and large intestines to less than 200 g of stool that contains less than 8 g of fat, 1–2 g of nitrogen, and less than 20 mmol each of , , , , , or .