Radiology of the small intestine. II. The small intestine in undernutrition.

Abstract

Similar abnormalities in the radiological appearances of the small intestine have been described in undernourished subjects, in persons suffering from a variety of conditions not usually accompanied by undernutrition and occasionally in normal people. The precise part played by undernutrition in the causation of these abnormal appearances has never been made clear. In 1946 we had the opportunity of doing barium meal examinations on 78 undernourished German subjects at a Medical Research Council Unit in Germany under Professor R. A. McCance, F.R.S. The results of these investigations have been reported in detail elsewhere (Berridge, 1951) and only the main conclusions drawn from them can be referred to here. As far as is known, the diets of these subjects were lacking only in calories; there was no evidence of any known vitamin deficiency. Their undernutrition during the previous year had been severe enough to have caused hunger œdema in all of them, and œdema was present in about two-thirds of them when t...