Yield of testing for micronutrient deficiencies associated with pancreatic exocrine insufficiency in a clinical setting: An observational study

Table 2 Prevalence of micronutrient deficiency¹ in 112 patients with suspected pancreatic disease.

	PEI	No PEI	P value	CP PEI	CP no PEI	PEI no CP	No CP no PEI
n in group	41	71		22	10	19	61
Micronutrients
Prealbumin	8 (19.5%)	2 (2.8%)	0.005	6 (27.3%)	0	2 (10.5%)	2 (3.2%)
RBP	0	0		0	0	0	0
Selenium	6 (14.6%)	1 (1.4%)	0.01	5 (22.7%)	0	1 (5.3%)	1 (1.6%)
Zinc	0	0		0	0	0	0
Copper	2 (4.9%)	0		1 (4.5%)	0	1 (5.3%)	0
Magnesium	5 (12.2%)	1 (1.4%)	0.02	3 (13.6%)	0	2 (10.5%)	1 (1.6%)
Vitamin E (n = 19)	5/12(41.7%)	1/7 (14.3%)		5/8 (62.5%)	0/5	0/4	1/2(50%)
Total patients with at least 1 deficiency	17(41.5%)	4 (5.6%)	0.0001	13 (59.1%)	0 P = 0.002a	4 (21.1%) P = 0.03b	4 (6.6%)

¹Micronutrient deficiency defied as level below laboratory ranges: Prealbumin 0.2–0.5 g/L; RBP 20-40 mg/L; Copper 11.0–27.2 µmol/L; Zinc 7.2–20.43 µmol/L; Selenium 0.61–1.24 µmol/L; Magnesium 0.7-1.0 mmol/L; Lipid adjusted vitamin E 3.9-5.9 µmol/L.

^aComparing patients with CP and PEI to patients with CP without PEI.

^bComparing patients with CP and PEI to patients with PEI without CP.

PEI: Pancreatic exocrine insufficiency; FEL-1: Faecal Elastase-1; CP: Chronic pancreatitis; RBP: Retinol-binding protein. Grouped according to the presence of PEI (FEL-1 < 200 µg/g) and CP. Significant differences identified are shown if P value ≤ 0.05 (Fisher’s test)