AIM To evaluate whether virtual chromoendoscopy can improve the delineation of small bowel lesions previously detected by conventional white light small bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE). METHODS Retrospective single center study. One hundred lesions selected from forty-nine consecutive conventional white light SBCE (SBCE-WL) examinations were included. Lesions were reviewed at three Flexible Sp...

“Drug – induced” or “medicationrelated” forms of enteropathy are known to result in alterations in small intestinal architecture and function causing “spruelike” mucosal changes, diarrhoea and malabsorption. Many drugs are proved to induce these changes and these include chemotherapeutic agents like colchicine, vincristine, and immunosuppresants like methotrexate, azathioprine, mycophenolate mo...

Twenty-one children aged between 2 and 54 months, 14 with eczema and 7 with allergies in first-degree relatives, were referred for diagnostic jejunal mucosal biopsy for a variety of symptoms. A partial villous atrophy was found in 19 of the 21 biopsies obtained; the other 2 were normal. We report a highly significant (P less than 0.0001) lower IgA cell count in biopsies with partial villous atr...

The structure and ultrastructure of the villi of small intestinal mucosa was examined in 237 duodenal or jejunal biopsies taken from children with active celiac disease and during gluten-free diet. All biopsies were processed for light and scanning electron microscopy. Conventional histology showed four different morphological aspects: total and subtotal villous atrophy in patients on unrestric...

The jejunal morphological and functional response to either a gluten-free diet or corticosteroid therapy was studied in six patients with dermatitis herpetiformis. In each treatment group there were two patients with subtotal villous atrophy and one with partial villous atrophy. After treatment, in both groups, morphological improvement was seen in villous and surface cell heights, mucosal thic...

In celiac disease (CD), the intestinal lesions can be patchy and partial villous atrophy may elude detection at standard endoscopy (SE). Narrow Band Imaging (NBI) system in combination with a magnifying endoscope (ME) is a simple tool able to obtain targeted biopsy specimens. The aim of the study was to assess the correlation between NBI-ME and histology in CD diagnosis and to compare diagnosti...

Celiac disease is diagnosed in part by finding areas of pathology in the small bowel (SB) mucosa. This can often be difficult because the pathologic alterations, including atrophy of the small intestinal villi, can often be sparse and subtle. Some of the quantitative methods for detecting and measuring the presence of villous atrophy from videocapsule endoscopy (VCE) images are presented and di...

A patient with megaloblastic anaemia due to nutritional folate deficiency is described. Partial villous atrophy and malabsorption of xylose showed progressive improvement to normal with folic acid therapy.