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Previous Volume 330:1418-1419 May 19, 1994 Number 20 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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Patients with chronic unexplained diarrhea present a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Many disorders can cause chronic diarrhea, but despite extensive evaluation the cause may remain unknown. Surreptitious abuse of laxatives¹ and ingestion of drugs whose laxative properties are not recognized² are leading causes of chronic diarrhea in patients referred to university hospitals for evaluation^3,4. Factitious diarrhea has traditionally been diagnosed by evaluating stools for laxatives.

We recently studied two patients with chronic unexplained diarrhea who were found to have diluted their stool samples. Dilution was suspected when the measured stool osmolality was found to be considerably lower than plasma . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Case Reports

Patient 1

Patient 2

Discussion

Source Information

From the Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Digestive Diseases, and the General Clinical Research Center, Yale University School of Medicine.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Topazian at Yale University School of Medicine, 1080 LMP, 333 Cedar St., New Haven, CT 06510.

References

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Keating, J. P. (2005). Chronic Diarrhea. Pediatr. Rev. 26: 5-14 [Full Text]  
• Thomas, P D, Forbes, A, Green, J, Howdle, P, Long, R, Playford, R, Sheridan, M, Stevens, R, Valori, R, Walters, J, Addison, G M, Hill, P, Brydon, G (2003). Guidelines for the investigation of chronic diarrhoea, 2nd edition. Gut 52: v1-15 [Full Text]  
• Lord, R C C (1999). Current concepts: Osmosis, osmometry, and osmoregulation. Postgrad. Med. J. 75: 67-73 [Abstract] [Full Text]