A retrospective study on the association of gastrointestinal symptoms in children with low lactase activity and low activity of other disaccharidases

Table 3 Frequency of GI symptoms in pediatric patients with low disaccharidase activity

Low Activity Groups	Total		Presenting Symptom Frequencies¹
Low Activity Groups	Total		Abdominal Pain		Diarrhea		Weight Loss		Reflux
	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%
Total Population	347	100.0	223	64.3	97	28.0	39	11.2	119	34.3
Total Normal Activity	174	50.1	101	58.4	56	32.4	23	13.3	59	34.1
Any Low Activity²	173	49.9	122	70.5	40	23.1	16	9.2	60	34.7
Low Beta-Glucosidase alone
Lactase Alone	111	32.0	79	71.2	27	24.3	7	6.3	39	35.1
Low Beta-Glucosidase + Low Alpha-Glucosidases Combined
Sucrase+Lactase	5	1.4	4	80.0	2	40.0	1	20.0	1	20.0
Maltase+Lactase	16	4.6	11	68.8	5	31.3	1	6.3	7	43.8
Sucrase+Lactase+Maltase	24	6.9	16	66.7	6	25.0	5	20.8	10	41.7
Pandissacharidase³	8	2.3	7	87.5	1	12.5	0	0.0	1	12.5
Total	53	15.3	38	71.7	14	26.4	7	13.2	19	35.8
Low Alpha-Glucosidases alone
Maltase alone	3	0.9	1	33.3	0	0.0	1	33.3	1	33.3
Maltase+Sucrase	4	1.2	4	100.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	0	0.0
Sucrase+Maltase+Palatinase	2	0.6	0	0.0	0	0.0	2	100.0	0	0.0
Total	9	2.6	5	55.6	0	0.0	3	33.3	1	11.1

¹Percentages in the “Presenting Symptom Frequencies” columns are percentages of N of the “Total” column. Patients with multiple GI symptoms were included in more than one symptom category per specific disaccharidase
²Reference values are 15, 25, 100 and 5 μM/min/g protein for lactase, sucrase, maltase and palatinase respectively
³Pandisaccharidase = Maltase+Sucrase+Lactase+Palatinase

ISSN: 1471-230X