ABSTRACT
Jejunal fluids were collected from ten adults with cholera (stool culture for Vibrio cholera El for positive) and ten adults with non-cholera watery diarrhoea admitted to Infectious Diseases Hospital. By limulus amoebocyte lysate gelation test using chloroform extraction, "endotoxin" (lipopolysaccharide) was detected in half of patients with cholera and none of patients with noncholera diarrhoea. Patients in whose jejunal fluids endotoxin was detected were older, had smaller body weights, purged less diarrhoeal stools, fewer motions and for a shorter duration, vomitted 1.36 litres on the average, and required less intravenous and oral rehydration fluids than cholera patients without detectable "endotoxin" in their jejunal fluids. These findings suggest that presence of "endotoxin" of V. cholera El Tor in the gut lumen did not cause more severe diarrhoea.