Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency and Functional Dyspepsia

To investigate exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI), all patients will be asked to provide a stool sample for fecal elastase (Fel-1) analysis. Participants will be instructed to collect their stool sample in a sterile, disposable plastic container and submit it to the Gastroenterology Chemistry Laboratory (Litwin Laboratory) for processing and analysis. Based on previously published reports, samples will be refrigerated at 4-8 °C for no more than 48 hours. The concentration of Fel-1 in all samples will be measured using a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit (ScheBo-Pancreatic Elastase 1™, Giessen, Germany), with fecal elastase extracted and analyzed according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Cytokines will be quantified using the Bio-Plex Pro™ Human Cytokine 27-plex commercial kit (Bio-Rad Laboratories, USA) following the kit instructions.