LINOLEIC AND OLEIC ACID LEVEL IN IRAQI CHILDREN WITH CYSTIC FIBROSIS AND CELIAC DISEASE.

Introduction:- Disturbance in fatty acids metabolism and absorption occurs in patients with different causes of chronic diarrhea such as Celiac disease and Cystic fibrosis. Objective:- measure the concentration of Linoleic acid to estimate the essential fatty acid deficiency and measure Oleic acid in Cystic fibrosis children with or without treatment , and in children with untreated Celiac disease. Method:- This study consist of seventy children and they were : twenty children with Celiac disease , twenty children with Cystic fibrosis { ten of them were taking therapy (pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy and fat soluble vitamins ) and the other ten patients were not treated yet } and thirty healthy control children , they all had been taken fasting to measure Linoleic and Oleic acid Result:- The results show that the mean ± SD values of Linoleic acid in control group was (0.8 ± 0.08 ) and it was higher in CF patients who were taking treatment (0.14±1.08 ) , while there were a highly significant decrease in CF group who were not treated ( 0.04±0.43) and in Celiac disease group ((0.09±0.49 as compared to control , in other hand the mean values of Oleic acid in control group was (1.38±0.2) , the mean values of Oleic acid were highly significant higher in all the study groups as compared to the control Conclusion:- low concentration of Linoleic acid(which indicate the essential fatty acid deficiency ) with high concentration of Oleic acid were found in patients with Cystic fibrosis before they were treated and in Celiac disease patients ,while the concentrations of these fatty acids were significantly high in CF patients who were taking treatment for over than three years .