A Profile of Tropical Sprue
Abstract
Tropical Sprue is an enigmatic malabsorption
syndrome which occurs among
people living in the tropics. 1 It is a syndrome
of unknown etiology characterized
by intestinal malabsorption, chronic diarrhoea
and nutritional deficiency was recognized
in India a number of centuries
before by Charaka. 2 We aimed to describe
the clinical profile of Tropical
Sprue in our centre.MethodsThe data
were collected retrospectively from the
admission files of department of gastroenterology
PSG hospitals, Coimbatore
during the period Jan 2011 Jun 2011 (6
moths).ResultsA total of 50 patients were
included among which 32 were males
and 18 were females. The mean age of
the patient was 46 years and mean duration
of the symptoms was 6 months.
Loose stool was the most common clinical
presentation followed by weight loss.
The mean hemoglobulin level was 8.2gdl
and D-Xylose test was abnormal in all
the patients. Histology of duodenal biopsy
showed villous atrophy with intra
epithelial lymphocytes in lamina propria. .
ConclusionTropical sprue still exists in India
and is one of the important cause for
chronic diarrhoea and malabsorption.
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