An Epidemiologic Study Of Microscopic Colitis In Turkey

Main Category: GastroIntestinal / Gastroenterology
Article Date: 08 Oct 2008 - 10:00 PDT

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The research team led by Levent Erdem from Sisli Etfal Teaching and Research Hospital of Turkey investigated the prevalence and demography of microscopic colitis in patients with diarrhea of unknown etiology and normal colonoscopy in Turkey. This was published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

Between March 1998 to July 2005, 129 patients with chronic non-bloody diarrhea of unexplained etiology who had undergone full colonoscopy with no obvious abnormality were included in the study. Two biopsies were obtained from all colonic segments and terminal ileum for diagnosis of microscopic colitis. Lymphocytic colitis was diagnosed in 12 (9%) patientsand collagenous colitis. Biopsy of Turkish patients with the diagnosis of chronic non-bloody diarrhea of unexplained etiology and normal colonoscopic findings will reveal microscopic colitis in approximately 10%. Authors found lymphocytic colitis as 4 times more frequent than collagenous colitis in those patients.

Considering 11.5% of the patients with chronic diarrhea of unknown etiology and normal colonoscopy would have microscopic colitis, biopsy should be taken during colonoscopy in this subset of patients. Although the number of the cases was not enough to answer the question of how many biopsies should be taken and from which part of the colon, the fact that histopathological criteria were determined on all colonic regions in patients with lymphocytic colitis on whom biopsy was performed is promising in terms of diagnostic convenience.

This is an epidemiologic study confirming findings reported from other countries about the frequency of lymphocytic and collagenous colitis and the importance of biopsies for the diagnosis.

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Reference: Erdem L, Yıldırım S, Akbayır N, Yılmaz B, Yenice N, Gültekin OS, Peker - Prevalence of microscopic colitis in patients with diarrhea of unknown etiology in Turkey. World J Gastroenterol 2008; 14(27): 4319-4323 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/14/4319.asp

Correspondence to: Levent Erdem, MD, Department of Gastroenterology, Şişli Etfal Teaching and Research Hospital, Abide-i Hürriyet cad. Şen ap. No.103/1 Şen Ap. K:1 D:2 Şişli, İstanbul 34381, Turkey.

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2003-2000 IF: 3.318, 2.532, 1.445 and 0.993. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.

About The WJG Press

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Source: Lai-Fu Li
World Journal of Gastroenterology

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