Morphometric studies and eosinophil cell counts in the duodenal mucosa of children with chronic nonspecific diarrhoea and cow's milk allergy.

Morphometric studies and eosinophil counts in the lamina propria of the duodenal mucosa have been performed in patients with chronic nonspecific diarrhoea and with persistent diarrhoea due to a cow's milk allergy, using a semiautomatic image analysing system. The results have shown that the mean eosinophil count was significantly higher in both of these groups of patients compared with a control group (p less than 0.001), and some of the patients with chronic nonspecific diarrhoea had partial villous flattening. These findings in patients with chronic nonspecific diarrhoea could be related to the pathogenesis of this disorder.