Oral rehydration therapy has gained worldwide acceptance as the standard treatment for acute diarrhoeal diseases in infants and children. Besides the high
sodium glucose-
electrolyte solution based on the WHO/UNICEF recommendations, many diverse formulations of
oral rehydration solutions (
ORS) have withstood the trial of prolonged clinical use, their main differences concerning the concentration of
sodium, the choice of the glycidic component, the use of
bicarbonate as
buffer or its substitution with
acetate or
citrate. It was recently hypothesized that
glucose polymers-containing
ORS markedly improve the intestinal
sodium/
glucose cotransport by delivering
glucose at its critical site on the
luminal villous membrane and therefore diminish stool output and duration of the diarrhoea. To investigate this hypothesis, the efficacies of two marketed
ORS (table I), one containing
sucrose and
maltodextrin (
solution A) and the other containing
glucose (
solution B) were compared. The study group comprised 13 infants and toddlers, 1 to 18 months old, who presented with acute
diarrhea; 5 were males and 8 females; 7 were randomly allocated to receive
solution A (Group A), 6
solution B (Group B). There were no significant differences between the groups in age, sex, causation of
diarrhea or severity of
dehydration before receiving
ORS. Both groups showed a satisfactory response to 24 hours of treatment with either
ORS, but a significantly lower stool output (number and global weight of stools) and higher
blood glucose and
bicarbonate levels were detected in group A (table II).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)