Does lymphocytic colitis always present with normal endoscopic findings?
BACKGROUND/AIMS
Although normal endoscopic findings are, as a rule, part of the diagnosis of microscopic colitis, sev-eral cases of macroscopic lesions (MLs) have been reported in collagenous colitis, but hardly in lymphocytic colitis (LC). The aim of this study was to investigate the endoscopic, clini-cal, and histopathologic features of LC with MLs.


METHODS
A total of 14 patients with LC who were diagnosed between 2005 and 2010 were enrolled in the study. Endoscopic, clini-cal, and histopathologic findings were compared retrospec-tively according to the presence or absence of MLs.


RESULTS
MLs were observed in seven of the 14 LC cases. Six of the MLs exhibited hypervascularity, three exhibited exudative bleeding and one exhibited edema. The patients with MLs had more severe diarrhea and were taking aspirin or pro-ton pump inhibitors. More intraepithelial lymphocytes were observed during histologic examination in the patients with MLs compared to the patients without MLs, although this difference was not significant. The numbers of mononuclear cells and neutrophils in the lamina propria were independent of the presence or absence of MLs.


CONCLUSIONS
LC does not always present with normal endoscopic findings. Hyper-vascularity and exudative bleeding are frequent endoscopic findings in patients with MLs. (Gut Liver, 2015;9197-201).
['Park|Hye Sun|HS|', 'Han|Dong Soo|DS|', 'Ro|Young Ouk|YO|', 'Eun|Chang Soo|CS|', 'Yoo|Kyo Sang|KS|']
D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D046729:Colitis, Collagenous D046730:Colitis, Lymphocytic D003106:Colon D003113:Colonoscopy D003937:Diagnosis, Differential D003967:Diarrhea D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007413:Intestinal Mucosa D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D012189:Retrospective Studies
Lymphocytic colitis Hypervascularity Exudative Hemorrhage