Background:Increased permeability to sucrose has been recently shown to be a good marker of gastric mucosal damage in adults.Methods:This test was evaluated in 40 children consulting for recurrent abdominal pain and the results were correlated with endoscopic and histologic findings and with the presence ofH. pylori.Results:The gastric mucosa was considered endoscopically normal in 31 children; 3 had duodenitis, and 6 had mild gastritis. Abnormal endoscopic findings were associated with increased urinary sucrose excretion (MANOVA F = 7.30;p= 0.002). In the 6 children with mild gastritis, mean sucrose excretion was twice that of controls (0.060 ± 0.024 vs. 0.029 ± 0.018, respectively;p= 0.019) and significantly higher than the group with duodenitis (0.037 ± 0.013;p= 0.038). The specificity and sensitivity of sucrose permeability test for detection of gastric damage were 90.3% and 83.3%, respectively.H. pyloriwas detected in 62.5% of children including all patients with mild gastritis, in 2 out of 3 with duodenitis and 17 out of 31 endoscopically normal controls. No differences in sucrose excretion were observed in relation with the presence ofH. pylorior histological findings in the control group.Conclusions:Urinary sucrose excretion is a good marker of mucosal gastric damage in children and may be used as a screening test in large groups of populations.