Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0024523 (malabsorption)
 7,319 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We describe the case of a patient with a two-year history of adult dermatomyositis (DM) who developed malabsorption revealing celiac disease. Our observation raises the question of an association between DM and celiac disease as part of a continuum, suggesting that celiac disease may be included within the spectrum of the gastrointestinal manifestations of DM and polymyositis (PM). From a practical point of view, our data indicate that the diagnosis of celiac disease should be suspected in PM/DM patients exhibiting malabsorption syndrome. Based on our findings, we further emphasize that an evaluation for celiac disease, including anti-gliadin antibodies, anti-endomysium antibody and tissue trans-glutaminase antibodies should be considered in PM/DM patients presenting with unusual and unexplained gastrointestinal features. This could lead to the early management of such patients, resulting in decreased morbidity (i.e., malnutrition and malignancy) related to misdiagnosed celiac disease.
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PMID:An uncommon association: celiac disease and dermatomyositis in adults. 1179 56

Malnutrition, either actually malnourished or at risk, is present in 80% of the elderly population presenting to hospital for admission. Although many factors contribute to this situation, one yet to be explored is malabsorption. We therefore aimed to assess nutritional status as well as the prevalence of altered mucosal permeability and celiac disease among a group of elderly patients presenting for rehabilitation. Forty-eight subjects were recruited (16 females) with a mean age of 83.7 (SD 6.1), body mass index 21.8 kg/m(2) (SD 3.9), mini-nutritional assessment (MNA) 19.5 (SD 3.4). They had no current gastrointestinal symptoms and undertook an assessment of mucosal permeability using the dual sugar absorption test of lactulose (7.5 g) and rhamnose (1 g). Ten of the 48 subjects had increased mucosal permeability with an L:R ration ranging from 0.0860 to 7.706 (N 0.01-0.08). These subjects were all at risk or malnourished according to the MNA score and they had a significantly lower mean MNA score of 17.2 (SD 3.5) compared to normal absorbers with a mean of 19.5 (SD 3.4). Two of the subjects had positive tissue trans-glutaminase antibodies. The higher risk of potential malabsorption in this elderly population has significant implications both for nutritional supplementation and for drug absorption as well as being a possible major contributor to malnutrition.
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PMID:Malabsorption may contribute to malnutrition in the elderly. 2009 34