Fecal Excretion of Bile Acids: a New Technique for Studying Bile Acid Kinetics in Patients with Ileal Resection

circulation of bile acid was studied in 11 patients, 10 pa-tients with varying degrees of ileal disease or resection and 1 patient with pancreatic insufficiency and no ileal disease. A new technique was employed which involved the nearly simultaneous administration of cholic acid-"C and a nonabsorbable marker, "CrClh. Each individual stool specimen was collected for 36-96 hr and analyzed separately. Assay of the radioactivity of each isotope allowed the accurate determination of an excretion rate for both cholic acid and "Cr. The difference between these rates was used to calculate an absorption coefficient for cholic acid. In addition, bile acid concentration mea-sured by the steroid dehydrogenase technique, and the water content of each stool was determined. The patients were divided into groups depending upon how much small intestine was resected or diseased: six patients with less than 100 cm of ileal resection or disease (group A), and five patients with more than 100 cm of ileal disease or resection (group B). The 'Cr excretion rate was similar in the two groups, but cholic acid-'4C excretion rates were significantly more rapid in group B than in group A. The cholic acid absorption coefficient was essentially normal in the patient with pan-creatic insufficiency, moderately decreased in group A patients, and extremely low or zero in group B patients. It was inversely related to the length of intestine dis-eased or resected. Daily fecal bile acid excretion was normal to twice normal in group A patients and 2-8 times normal i