One hundred nineteen children, either French or from the Ivory Coast, aged 1-8 years, were submitted to pancreatic function testing by duodenal aspiration. Trypsin, chymotrypsin, lipase, phospholipase, amylase, volume, bicarbonate, chloride, and calcium were estimated before and after an intravenous injection of 1 CU secretin+3 CHR units pancreozymin per kilogram of body weight. Sixty-two patients were normal European children, and 11 were normal African children. Twenty-five African children presented with kwashiorkor and 10 African children had presented with kwashiorkor but had recovered at the time of the test. Three cases of recurrent kwashiorkor are also included. In the normal group of African children, phospholipase concentration, volume, and bicarbonate were significantly decreased but chymotrypsin and trypsin connentrations were not, when compared to the normal European population. In kwashiorkor patients, lipase, amylase, phospholipase, and chymotrypsin concentration were significantly decreased compared to normal Africans. Trypsin, volume, and bicarbonate were not affected. These modifications disappeared after refeeding. In cases of recurrent kwashiorkor, all enzymes, including trypsin, were decreased. Calcium was never modified. These modifications were very different from those observed in chronic alcoholic and hypercalcemic pancreatitis. In a two-year study, chronic calcifying pancreatitis (CCP) was diagnosed in 14 patients (13 males), hospitalized in Abidjan. The mean age at onset of the disease was 41 years (sd 12.71), which is very similar to European cases. The most frequent cause was alcoholism, as in Occidental countries. The nutrition of the population was low in protein, calories being provided mostly by manioc, but no apparent symptoms of malnutrition were observed in the parents of our patients. It is concluded that: the pancreatic insufficiency due to kwashiorkor is reversible, trypsin is more resistant to malnutrition than other enzymes, there is no apparent relationship between kwashiorkor and tropical form of CCP, and manioc consumption is apparently not a cause of CCP. © 1986 Plenum Publishing Corporation.
