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Virus diarrhoea associated with pale fatty faeces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2010

Mair E. M. Thomas ,
P. Luton  and
Janet Y. Mortimer
Mair E. M. Thomas
Affiliation:
Epidemiological Research Laboratory, Central Public Health Laboratory, Colindale, London, NW9 5HT
P. Luton
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Microbiology, University College Hospital, London, WC1 6AU
Janet Y. Mortimer
Affiliation:
Epidemiological Research Laboratory, Central Public Health Laboratory, Colindale, London, NW9 5HT
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Summary

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Steatorrhoea was a significant feature in an outbreak of rotavirus gastroenteritis which affected adults and infants in hospital. Fat globules or fatty acid crystals were obvious by light microscopy (LM) in faeces from 14 of 25 patients examined. Ten of the fatty stools and two of the remainder were very pale. By electron microscopy (EM) a rotavirus was seen in 11 of the 14 fatty faeces and in only two of 11 specimens without visible fat.

In a further study of pale or fatty faeces 20 such specimens sent for laboratory examination from patients not involved in the hospital outbreak were compared microbiologically with a similar number which were neither pale nor fatty. Viruses were found by EM in 11 (55%) of the pale or fatty stools; eight rotaviruses, two astroviruses and an uncultivable adenovirus were seen; one further patient had acute jaundice. In contrast, no viruses were seen by EM in the twenty specimens which were normally pigmented and without evident fat.

Steatorrhoea was significantly associated with rotavirus infection of the alimentary tract which usually presented as a fatty enteritis. We conclude that rotaviruses certainly, and other viruses possibly, can impede both the digestion of fat and the pigmentation of the faeces. Inspection and LM of faeces are easy. In acute enteritis a fatty or pale stool is an indication for virological examination.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 87 , Issue 2 , October 1981 , pp. 313 - 319
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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