Bacterial Agents in Ulcerative Colitis

Histiocytic Ulcerative Colitis: Infectious or Immune Mediated?

The development of culture independent techniques for determining the presence of infectious agents has revolutionized the approach to detecting both suspected and unsuspected pathogens. For example: PCR with broad range primers has led to the identifi cation of Bartonella henselae as the agent of cat scratch fever and peliosis hepatis. PCR with pathogen specifi c primers has enabled the accura...

Therapeutic manipulation of the enteric microflora in inflammatory bowel diseases: antibiotics, probiotics, and prebiotics.

Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and pouchitis are caused by overly aggressive immune responses to a subset of commensal (nonpathogenic) enteric bacteria in genetically predisposed individuals. Clinical and experimental studies suggest that the relative balance of aggressive and protective bacterial species is altered in these disorders. Antibiotics can selectively decrease tissue invasion ...

Pathological mimics of chronic inflammatory bowel disease.

When all of the macroscopic and microscopic features of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are present, the correct diagnosis is usually made without difficulty. When some of the changes are absent, the accuracy of diagnosis is reduced. This review has outlined those diseases which feature some of these pathological changes and may masquerade as idiopathic chronic inflammatory bowel disease...

The medical treatment of ulcerative colitis

THE ADEQUATE treatment of any illness depends primarily upon a knowledge of its aetiology and in a chronic relapsing illness, such as ulcerative colitis, an awareness of its natural history and complications. While the final cause of ulcerative colitis remains obscure, increasing knowledge of possible causal factors and of the prognosis of the condition has markedly influenced its treatment in ...

Colonic bicarbonate output as a test of disease activity in ulcerative colitis.

No available test objectively measures impairment of function of the inflamed colonic mucosa in ulcerative colitis. To study function we assessed rectal bicarbonate output by rectal dialysis in the presence of water and bacterial fatty acid (n-butyrate) in 21 controls, 18 patients with acute ulcerative colitis, 12 patients with ulcerative colitis in remission, and 12 patients with other forms o...

Hydrogen sulphide: a bacterial toxin in ulcerative colitis?