<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
 
On Apr 30, 1996 14:46:17, '"J. Hughes" <[log in to unmask]>'
wrote:
 
>In this week's New England Journal of Medicine there is a study that finds
>that half of celiac sufferers have fecal occult blood (traces of blood in
>their stools). This finding suggests that we may be losing a lot of iron,
>etc., in addition to the malabsorption from villi destruction/damage.
 
The specific reference is Fine, KD "Prevalence of Occult Gastrointestinal
Bleeding in Celiac Sprue" NEJM 334, 1163-1167.
 
The bleeding was found from the standardized impregnated cards used on the
stool. Only 8 patients with partial villous atrophy, 28 with total. Control
groups prevalence of bleeding 0-8 %. One control group was celiacs on a GF
diet
 
Only 17 of the 28 with total villous atropy were reponsive to gluten
withdrawal, hence apparently had refractory sprue???? I didn't realize this
percentage was so high.
 
                                  Kemp Randolph
                                  Long Island