Malabsorption syndrome in Paget's disease of bone.

Of eight patients with Paget's disease one had diarrhoea, steatorrhoea, impaired xylose absorption, and macrocytic anaemia due to folic acid deficiency, while another had diarrhoea and very low xylose absorption. In both patients jejunal biopsy was normal, and they responded to folic acid therapy with considerable increase in xylose absorption. Low xylose excretion was seen in three more patients, one of whom also had steatorrhoea. Thus malabsorption may be a systemic complication of Paget's disease of bone, possibly due either to secondary folate deficiency or to relative ischaemia of the bowel.