Measurement of proteolytic activity in feces is a traditional method for the diagnosis of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI). A drawback of this method is the occurrence of falsely low results that may lead to a false-positive diagnosis of EPI. We hypothesized that intestinal loss of serum proteinase inhibitors in protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) may inhibit fecal proteolytic activity and be a potential source of false low results.
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