Microscopic colitis in patients with mild duodenal damage: A new clinical and pathological entity ("lymphocytic enterocolitis")?

Aim: To evaluate the potential association between mild duodenal damage and microscopic colitis (MC).

Methods: We retrospectively included 105 consecutive patients with type I Marsh-Oberhuber duodenal damage and negativity for immunoglobulin A anti-endomysium and anti-tissue transglutaminase. The following parameters were analyzed: Sex, age at execution of esophagogastroduodenoscopy, duodenal damage, and number of intraepithelial lymphocytes at biopsies, prevalence of infection, age at execution of colonoscopy, macroscopic and microscopic features of colonoscopy, family history of gastrointestinal and autoimmune diseases, smoking habits, biochemical parameters of inflammation and autoimmunity, use of proton pump inhibitors or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, adverse reactions to drugs or foods, pathologies known to be associated with celiac disease or MC, living on a gluten-free diet or on a gluten-low diet for at least 1 mo.

Prevalence and prognostic value of hepatic histological alterations in patients with Crohn's disease.

Unlabelled: Variable degrees of liver histological changes in patients with Crohn's disease (CD) have been reported.

Objective: To evaluate the liver histological alterations and their prognostic significance in patients affected by CD without abnormalities of liver biochemical parameters and ultrasound features.

Material And Methods: A prospective, single-blind study, including 35 consecutive patients with CD that underwent bowel resection with a contemporary performance of liver biopsy from 1992 to 2003.

A Case of Intestinal Mastocytosis Misdiagnosed as Crohn's Disease.

Systemic mastocytosis (SM) is a rare, heterogeneous and progressive disease, characterized by the accumulation of atypical mast cells in various organs, including the gastrointestinal tract. Gastrointestinal symptoms are present in up to 80% of patients with SM, the most common being abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. Up to 50% of patients with SM do not have classical skin lesions at presentation, and in these patients the diagnosis of SM can be difficult for years.

Helicobacter pylori in celiac disease and in duodenal intraepithelial lymphocytosis: Active protagonist or innocent bystander?

Background And Objective: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection influences duodenal inflammation. Consequently, in celiac disease and in duodenal intraepithelial lymphocytosis, the bacterium could affect the clinical-histological manifestations.

Bone mineral density at diagnosis of celiac disease and after 1 year of gluten-free diet.

Atypical or silent celiac disease may go undiagnosed for many years and can frequently lead to loss of bone mineral density, with evolution to osteopenia or osteoporosis. The prevalence of the latter conditions, in case of new diagnosis of celiac disease, has been evaluated in many studies but, due to the variability of epidemiologic data and patient features, the results are contradictory. The aim of this study was to evaluate bone mineral density by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in 175 consecutive celiac patients at time of diagnosis (169 per-protocol, 23 males, 146 females; average age 38.

Role of bowel ultrasound as a predictor of surgical recurrence of Crohn's disease.

Background: In Crohn's disease natural history, about 80% of the patients require surgery, which is not curative: unfortunately, the disease recurs in many patients.

Objective: To investigate the role of intestinal ultrasound to predict the risk of post-operative surgical recurrence in Crohn's disease.

Material And Methods: A total of 196 patients, with ileal or ileocolonic Crohn's disease, undergoing intestinal resection, were retrospectively enrolled.

Potential role for the common cystic fibrosis DeltaF508 mutation in Crohn's disease.

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an epithelial barrier disease that is thought to result from a dysregulated interaction with bacteria in the intestine of genetically predisposed individuals. The cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), which is mutated in the autosomal recessive disease cystic fibrosis, modulates gut permeability, mucus production, and epithelial interactions with bacteria. The cystic fibrosis DeltaF508 mutation is commonly found in the general population and has been shown to result in a reduced number of CFTR molecules at the surface of epithelial cells.

Analysis of the CARD15 variants R702W, G908R and L1007fs in Italian IBD patients.

CARD15 on chromosome 16 is the only IBD susceptibility gene identified among several mapped loci. Its recurrent variants R702W, G908R and L1007fs have shown significant association with Crohn's disease (CD), but not with ulcerative colitis (UC), in different Caucasian populations. We analysed these three variants in 184 CD and 92 UC Italian patients and in 177 healthy controls.