Protein-losing gastroenteropathy.

In the past 10 years with the development of improved methods, particularly radioisotope techniques, it has been demonstrated that a number of patients with gastrointestinal disease and depletion of plasma proteins become hypoproteinemic because of actual leakage of albumin and other plasma proteins into the lumen of the gastrointestinal tract. The site of protein leakage is variable depending on the underlying pathological state but the loss of protein-containing lymph through the gastrointestinal lymphatic channels seems to be the major mechanism for hypoproteinemia.It has become apparent that there exists a normal mechanism for secretion of plasma proteins into the gastrointestinal tract as part of the overall metabolism of the plasma proteins. When the process is exaggerated so that resynthesis of plasma protein cannot keep pace with its degradation, sometimes severe hypoproteinemia is the result. Such a pathological process has now been described in approximately 40 disease states. A review of all the techniques which can demonstrate gastroenteric protein loss reveals that there are no widely available quantitative tests but that accurate quantitation is not necessary for the diagnosis of protein losing gastroenteropathy.