Patent ID: 7695971

Claim:
A method for measuring total dietary fat absorption by the digestive tract of a subject, useful for diagnostic testing for diagnosing malabsorption of dietary fat by the digestive tract of the subject, and impairment of dietary fat digestion in the subject, comprising the steps of: a. providing a test meal for consumption, comprising a predetermined amount of dietary fat and a predetermined amount of a marker consisting of sucrose polyester comprising sucrose behenate, b. administering ingestion of the provided test meal by a subject under diagnosis for malabsorption of dietary fat by the digestive tract of the subject or an impairment of dietary fat digestion in the subject, c. analyzing for the amount of total fatty acid in the dietary fat and the amount of behenic acid in the sucrose polyester recovered in a sample portion of fecal matter collected from the stool of the subject at an interval following ingestion of the provided test meal wherein the sample portion does not result from the homogenization of an entire stool collected from the subject, and d. calculating the amount of dietary fat recovered from the provided test meal based on the analyzed amounts of total fatty acid and behenic acid, to determine the amount of dietary fat that was absorbed by the digestive tract of the subject.