The Small Intestine Pattern in Normal Children and in Cœliac Disease

Recent work on small intestinal patterns has shown that barium sulphate will flocculate in vitro in the presence of freshly secreted mucus and flocculation of a barium meal has been induced experimentally in normal individuals (Frazer, French, and Thompson, 1949). Further work has shown that a complex gelo-colloid preparation of barium sulphate, which did not flocculate in vitro with salivary mucus, provided a detailed picture of mucosal pattern in the small intestine in idiopathic steatorrhœa where the ordinary simple aqueous suspension of barium sulphate gave a flocculated pattern (Ardran, French, and Mucklow, 1950).