Table.
Characteristics of 185 patients with severe diarrhoea who participated in the study of gastric acid secretiona
| Culture-negative | Dysentery | Secretory diarrhoea | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| diarrhoea | Amoebiasis | Shigellosis | Cholera | ETECb | |
| Clinical features | |||||
| Age (years) | 33·0 (12·1) | 46·7 (13·5) | 35·3 (14·5) | 31·1 (14·7) | 40·4 (15·1) |
| Admission weight (kg) | 43·6 (5·1) | 40·0 (5·3) | 46·0 (6·9) | 41·6 (5·7) | 43·2 (6·3) |
| In-patient weight gain (kg) | 2·2 (1·8) | 1·2 (2·5) | 0·6 (2·2) | 3·2 (1·9) | 2·4 (2·5) |
| Stool volume (L) | 1·9 (1·5) | 0·4 (0·6) | 0·4 (0·4) | 18·5 (20·2) | 2·0 (2·9) |
| Duration of diarrhoea | |||||
| Pre-admission (d) | 1·7 (2·6) | 40·9 (44·8) | 4·3 (1·7) | 0·9 (0·9) | 0·8 (0·7) |
| Post-admission (h) | 21·5 (21·8) | 30·3 (24·4) | 26·1 (21·6) | 89·6 (43·1) | 45·1 (20·3) |
| Laboratory features | |||||
| Leucocyte count (day 1) | 13·4 (5·6) | 18·1 (10·3) | 12·9 (8·1) | 22·8 (7·6) | 16·0 (6·5) |
| Plasma specific gravity (day 1) | 270·7 (32·3) | 242·3(20·0) | 265·4(19·1) | 299·3(49·3) | 275·7 (28·5) |
| Haematocrit (day 1) | 41·8 (6·3) | 35·8 (5·4) | 42·0 (2·6) | 46·3 (6·3) | 40·2 (5·9) |
| Haematocrit (day 7) | 40·0 (6·3) | 35·9 (5·8) | 40·8 (2·7) | 37·9 (4·2) | 37·0 (7·0) |
a
Values in the Table are means with standard deviations in parentheses. The number of patients studied at each time is given in Fig. 1.
b
Enterotoxigenic E. coli.