Malnutrition, gastroenteritis and trypsinogen concentration in hospitalised Aboriginal children.

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.