What kind of blood, urine, and stool tests can a gastroenterologist run to test for malabsorption?
It depends on what they are looking for. Stool thats are pale/white and fatty looking, and tend to ‘float’ contain excessive amounts of fat due to the fat not being absorbed in the gut. This is often due to problems with the bile production or transport, which is used to emulsify the fats to ease fat absorption. For example, if there was a blockage in the bile ducts in the liver where the bile is made, this would limit/prevent the amount of bile that could be released into the gut. Alternatively, the bile may not be produced correctly, possibly as a result of liver damage or lack of red blood cell death (from which the bile salts can be produced). If the stools are runny then this could be an indication of malabsorption because of infection causing diarrhoea (one of the world’s biggest killers). It may also indicate lack of absorption of carbohyrdates or various other biological substances, becaue they would remain in the gut ratyher than being absorbed into the bloodstream, and theref
