My son is three years old and has had
diaherria since he was just a few months
old. He was recently diagnosed with
malabsorption through a stool culture and
his primary care doctor tested him for a
number of conditions such a ciliac, cystic
fibrosis, and many other things through
blood work. She then decided to repeat the
stool culture and this time it came back
normal but, the blood work showed his
alkaline phosphate was abnormally high and
his carotene was abnormally low. She then
called the gastro doctor who in turn
scheduled him an appointment and ordered
some test of her own. She did some more
blood work and another stool culture and
told us it will take five weeks for the
results. The doctors aren't telling us
much, just that the alkaline phosphate
could mean something with the bones or
liver but, I am clueless as to what any of
this means. I was wondering if you could
tell me some possible causes for all of
this?
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DoctorAnswer
Doctor Answer
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Digestive and Bowel Disorders Answer A4457 Posted: 07-28-08 16:08pm
Chronic diarrhea can be due to
malabsorption syndrome. Malabsorption can
be due to many reasons including certain
liver disorders. It is true that increased
levels of the enzyme alkaline phosphatase
can be due either to a liver disorder or
bone disorder. That’s why your son needs
several more tests (AST, ALT, gamma-GT,
bilirubin…) to check his liver
condition. If everything is okay with the
liver, tests can be focused on the bone
metabolism. Malabsorption can’t cause a
liver disorder but can cause a disturbance
in the bone development by providing
insufficient calcium, phosphates, and
Vitamin D. This means that the serum
levels of calcium, phosphates,
parathormone, calcitonin and Vitamin D
should also be checked.
This means that all 3 possibilities
(malabsorption, liver disorder, and bone
disorder) can be present at the same time
and even be connected.
You may want to consult a pediatric
gastroenterologist about this.
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