Vitamin A concentration in children with giardiasis.
Although the vitamin A concentration was somewhat lower in patients with giardiasis than in normal children this difference was not significant; 35% of patients with giardiasis and 22.6% of normal children had vitamin A concentration lower than 20 micrograms/dl. This indicates that there may be malabsorption of vitamin A and that low serum vitamin A levels may be found in patients who were infected with Giardia lamblia. Therefore, apart from antigiardia agent, supplementation of vitamin A should be considered in the treatment of patients with giardiasis with or without clinical signs of vitamin A deficiency. There was no significant difference in pre-treatment and post-treatment serum vitamin A concentrations of patients with giardiasis. The normal children after treatment with oral vitamin A for three weeks showed a significantly higher serum vitamin A concentration (p < 0.01) than patients after antigiardia treatment plus vitamin A given orally for three weeks. It may be concluded that in patients with giardiasis after treatment with antigiardia drugs, impaired absorption of vitamin A did not improve dramatically, or return to normal for at least 3 weeks. There was no significant difference in the beta carotene concentration between patients with giardiasis and normal children.
D002338:Carotenoids / Q000097:blood; D002648:Child; D005873:Giardiasis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D013785:Thailand; D014801:Vitamin A / Q000097:blood* / Q000627:therapeutic use
D014801:Vitamin A; D002338:Carotenoids