Histopathological diagnosis of microscopic colitis.

Department of Pathomorphology, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland.

A typical symptom of microscopic colitis (MC) is chronic watery diarrhea with normal endoscopic findings and characteristic inflammatory changes in histopathology. Treatment of the disease is mainly empiric. MC has two main subtypes: lymphocytic colitis and collagenous colitis. There are also untypical histopathological forms of MC: MC with giant cells, MC not otherwise specified (NOS) and cryptal lymphocytic coloproctitis. Some other histopathological changes in MC have been observed, especially Paneth cell hyperplasia or epithelial degeneration. Eosinophilic colitis, acute colitis, amyloidosis, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease should be taken into consideration in differential diagnosis. The most reliable biopsy material for histopathological examination are samples obtained from transverse colon. Some studies proved that treatment of MC makes it possible to reduce not only clinical, but also histopathological, manifestations.

PMID: 16704525 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]