title: Malnutrition, gastroenteritis and trypsinogen concentration in hospitalised Aboriginal children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore relationships between malnutrition and pancreatic damage in hospitalised aboriginal children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Immunoreactive trypsinogen (IRT) concentrations were measured in two populations of hospitalised aboriginal children in Australia: 472 children aged 0-3 years, in Alice Springs (Northern Territory); and 187 children aged 0-16 years in Mount Isa (Queensland). Correlation of whole blood IRT with height and weight z-scores, four-site skinfold thickness and upper arm circumference was sought.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In Mount Isa, the geometric mean IRT concentration rose with decreasing weight z-score. The IRT concentration was otherwise unrelated to nutritional indices. Sixty percent of the 39 Mount Isa patients with gastroenteritis and 24.5% of the 358 Alice Springs patients with gastroenteritis had an IRT concentration in the upper quartile for their population, compared with 16% for patients with other diagnoses in both populations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A high IRT concentration in patients with low weight z-scores is a confounding effect of gastroenteritis, and may result from subclinical pancreatic disease in gastroenteritis.
authors.affiliation: Children's Nutrition Research Centre, Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Briars
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Thornton
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Forrest
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ehrlich
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Shepherd
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Cleghorn
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000886:Anthropometry; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D015362:Child Nutrition Disorders / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007228:Infant Nutrition Disorders / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D010182:Pancreatic Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014362:Trypsinogen / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D014362:Trypsinogen