RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Faecal chymotrypsin concentrations in neonates with cystic fibrosis and healthy controls.
JF Archives of Disease in Childhood
JO Arch Dis Child
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
SP 1229
OP 1233
DO 10.1136/adc.63.10.1229
VO 63
IS 10
A1 G A Brown
A1 R B Halliday
A1 P J Turner
A1 C A Smalley
YR 1988
UL http://adc.bmj.com/content/63/10/1229.abstract
AB Specimens of meconium and random stools were collected sequentially from 25 healthy newborn babies over the first 8-14 days of life. The stool chymotrypsin concentrations increased from birth to a maximum at 4 days of age and then fell again over the next four days. The lowest individual stool concentrations either side of the four day peak were both, coincidentally, 120 micrograms/g stool. In a second group of 22 newborn babies suspected of meconium ileus and later confirmed to have cystic fibrosis, faecal chymotrypsin concentrations were all appreciably reduced. In eight babies, also with suspected meconium ileus but with negative sweat tests, chymotrypsin concentrations were within the healthy newborn range. Measuring faecal chymotrypsin concentrations is a reliable procedure for identifying pancreatic exocrine insufficiency in the newborn.