Biopsies from 56 patients with endoscopically normal duodenal bulbs, duodenitis, or duodenal ulceration were studied for counts of plasma cells, polymorphs, and eosinophils and extent of gastric metaplasia, villous atrophy, and mucosal oedema. A correlation matrix showed that the counts of different types of plasma cells were closely correlated with each other and that there was also a close co...

Symptomatic disease from Strongyloides stercoralis has been recognized for the first time in Trinidad. Five cases are reported, all showing clinical features suggestive of a sprue-like syndrome. Subtotal jejunal villous atrophy was seen in one case and partial villous atrophy in two. Three patients had laparotomies because of suspected partial intestinal obstruction. A sprue-like syndrome in ce...

Fifty seven children with dermatitis herpetiformis, 18 from Finland and 39 from Hungary, were studied. Diagnostic criteria included the finding of granular IgA deposits in the skin of all patients. The mean age at onset of the rash was 7-2 years and favoured sites were the elbows, knees, and buttocks. Symptoms suggesting small intestinal disease were rare but in 35 (61%) of the children subtota...

Two patients diagnosed as having small intestinal hyperplastic villous atrophy and being treated with a gluten free diet were investigated because of persistent watery diarrhoea. Both were found to have collagenous colitis. Previous reports of this condition have emphasised the presence of normal small intestinal mucosal architecture and the association of collagenous colitis with intestinal vi...

Lactic acid bacteria, either alive or dead, can improve villous atrophy caused by weaning in both piglets and mice. In this experiment, we tried to detect the molecules involved in this phenomenon with a real-time RT-PCR array approach. Weaning pups of mice were administered either a suspension of an Enterococcus faecalis EC-12 dried cell preparation (EC-12) or saline for 11 consecutive days af...

AIM To determine whether the pattern of involvement of the gastric mucosa in lymphocytic gastritis is predictive of the presence or absence of duodenal pathology. METHODS 50 cases (M:F, 26:24; median age 57 years) diagnosed as lymphocytic gastritis between 1986 and 1998 with concurrent duodenal (D2) biopsies were identified from a computer search of the pathology records and validated by coun...

Calmodulin is an important modulator of intracellular calcium processes and may be implicated in the calcium malabsorption of coeliac disease. The calmodulin content in extracts of duodenal biopsy specimens from 48 normal control subjects and 28 patients with coeliac disease was determined. Radioimmunoassay was used to measure immunoreactive calmodulin while a cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophospha...

BACKGROUND Although serological tests are useful for identifying celiac disease, it is well established that a minority of celiacs are seronegative. AIM To define the prevalence and features of seronegative compared to seropositive celiac disease, and to establish whether celiac disease is a common cause of seronegative villous atrophy. METHODS Starting from 810 celiac disease diagnoses, se...

Two trials involving a total of 56 pigs were conducted to examine the effects of weaning at 7 d of age (trial 1) and of energy intake level and length of post-weaning underfeeding period (trial 2) on small intestinal (SI) development and morphometry. At 3 d after weaning, weight of the SI and mucosa (g/kg body weight) and villous height along SI were reduced by 20, 36 and 41%, respectively, com...