title: Mouth-to-anus transit-time predicts the severity of fecal water loss in acute dehydrating diarrhea.
abstract: The mouth-to-anus transit time was estimated in 24 young children admitted to an outpatient rehydration unit with acute dehydrating diarrheal disease by adding an oral fecal marker (brilliant blue) to the first draught of oral rehydration solution. Transit times ranged from 30 to 242 min. There was a highly significant (logarithmic) relationship between rate of fecal output and transit time (r = 0.74; p < 0.001). Three of 24 subjects could not be rehydrated orally, were declared treatment failures, and were hospitalized for intravenous therapy. All of them had had an initial transit time of less than 50 min, and constituted three of the four subjects with this rapid rate of transit. Thus, a rapid mouth-to-anus transit time had a 100% sensitivity to predict treatment failures and a 75% predictive accuracy for a "positive" test. Although our series is small, the findings suggest that fecal markers may be useful in remote areas to assist in the early detection of diarrheal episodes that cannot be managed by oral rehydration therapy.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP), Guatemala City, Guatemala.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ruz
authors.forename: N W
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Solomons
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D015415:Biomarkers; D003681:Dehydration / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D003968:Diarrhea, Infantile / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005440:Fluid Therapy; D005772:Gastrointestinal Transit; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers