This report describes a young woman with ulcerative colitis who developed rapidly fatal pneumococcal septicaemia. Necropsy revealed splenic atrophy. This case supports the hypothesis that splenic atrophy might contribute to the morbidity of ulcerative colitis. The occurrence of splenic atrophy in ulcerative colitis is now well established. Splenic atrophy from other causes has been associated w...

AIMS To ascertain whether the dogma that a normal rectal biopsy precludes a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis is correct. METHODS Rectal biopsy specimens from a prospective group of 24 asymptomatic patients, with an established diagnosis of ulcerative colitis, were examined in a blinded study alongside 10 normal rectal biopsy specimens from an age and sex matched patient cohort without ulcerati...

DNA ploidy and S-phase fractions were assessed by flow cytometry in colonic biopsy specimens from 28 patients with ulcerative colitis and 51 with Crohn's disease. Whereas only diploid DNA histograms were found in Crohn's disease and control subjects, three patients with ulcerative colitis exhibited DNA aneuploidy. In one case, aneuploidy was associated with low grade dysplasia. S-phase fraction...

19 INTRODUCTION Inflammatory disorders of the intestines can be divided into those with macroscopic mucosal changes (the traditional inflammatory bowel diseases: ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease) and those with primarily microscopic changes. Microscopic colitis is a chronic diarrheal condition that is separated into two main subtypes: collagenous colitis and lymphocytic colitis. These two...

Cell counts and measurements of mucosal architecture were made on rectal biopsies from nine patients with total colitis, eight with left sided colitis, 15 with distal colitis, and 11 with proctitis. The mean total lamina propria cell count in proctitis and distal colitis approached twice that of extensive left sided and total colitis (p less than 0.001) and in distal proctocolitis the cell numb...

The intracellular target of butyrate's actions: HDAC or HDON'T? Butyrate, the four-carbon short chain fatty acid, has special significance for clinicians and scientists interested in large bowel physiology. It is normally present in the colonic lumen at millimolar concentrations as a product of bacterial fermentation of luminal carbohydrates and is readily taken up by the colonic epithelium to ...

Inability to distinguish Crohn's colitis from ulcerative colitis leads to the diagnosis of indeterminate colitis. This greatly effects medical and surgical care of the patient because treatments for the two diseases vary. Approximately 30 percent of inflammatory bowel disease patients cannot be accurately diagnosed, increasing their risk of inappropriate treatment. We sought to determine whethe...

Clostridium difficile (CD) is the most common cause of healthcare-associated infections and can have devastating morbidity mortality. A 40-year-old diabetic patient who was recently treated for wound sepsis, subsequently developed CD colitis. This failed standard medical therapy colitis, decompensated required surgical exploration, partial colectomy mucous fistula creation. Following surgery, h...

strongyloidiasis disease caused by the strongyloidesstercoralis nematode .this disease mainly affects the intestines. sometimes the symptoms were similar to inflammatory bowel disease which may lead to misdiagnosis and lack of effective treatment. a 46-year-old male patient who complained of occasional diarrhea, sometimes with blood, about two months ago consulted with  an internist. he had col...

The overall aim of this thesis was to increase the understanding of the immunopathology of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The first aim was to elucidate how the thymus and the gut epithelium were affected by colitis. The second aim was to investigate new ways of assessing and monitoring colitis. Two mouse models of colitis were used, the dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) induced model and the Gαi...