Non-specific colitis among patients with colitis: frequency and relation to inflammatory bowel disease, a prospective study / Colite inespecífica entre pacientes com colite: estudo prospectivo sobre sua frequência e relação com doença inflamatória intestinal

Abstract Background and study aim: The term non-specific colitis refers to an inflammatory condition of the colon that microscopically lacks the characteristic features of any specific form of colitis and is commonly seen in pathology reports of colonoscopy biopsies. In fact, it has been questioned whether it is a separate pathological entity or it is merely an intermediate stage in the course of inflammatory bowel disease. This study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of non-specific colitis among patients with colitis and characterize its natural history over a 6 months year period. Patients and methods: Eighty adult patients presented for colonoscopy were enrolled. In the final analysis they were divided into Group A; the non-specific colitis Group and Group B; the inflammatory bowel disease Group. All patients were subjected to: full history taking, full clinical examination, laboratory investigations: which included stool analysis, CRP, ESR, complete colonoscopy and entire random colon biopsies for histopathological examination. Results: Group A included 67 patients (83.75%) while Group B included 13 (16.25%) patients. Patients with IBD had clinical and laboratory features of inflammation significantly higher than patients with non-specific colitis. Six patients (8.95%) of non-specific colitis group developed histologic features of florid inflammatory bowel disease after 6 months. There were no independent predictors of this conversion. Conclusion: Among our 80 patients with colonoscopy and biopsy 67 (83.75%) were diagnosed as non-specific colitis and out of them 6 patients (8.95%) were reexamined after 6 months and proved to have inflammtory bowel disese this change was not linked to predictive factors.

Resumo Introdução e objetivos: O termo colite inespecífica (CI) refere-se a uma condição inflamatória do cólon que microscopicamente não apresenta características de qualquer forma específica de colite; é comumente observada em relatórios patológicos de biópsias de colonoscopia. De fato, tem-se questionado se esta seria uma entidade patológica separada ou apenas um estágio intermediário no curso da DII. Este estudo foi realizado para estimar a prevalência de CI entre pacientes com colite e caracterizar seu curso durante um período de seis meses. Pacientes e métodos: O estudo incluiu 80 pacientes adultos que se apresentaram para colonoscopia. Na análise, os pacientes foram divididos em dois grupos: grupo A (CI) e grupo B (DII) Todos os pacientes foram submetidos a anamnese completa, exame clínico completo e investigações laboratoriais que incluíram análise de fezes, PCR, VHS, colonoscopia completa e biópsias aleatórias de cólon para exame histopatológico. Resultados: Do total de pacientes, 67 foram alocados no grupo A (83,75%) e 13 (16,25%) no grupo B. Os pacientes com DII apresentavam sinais clínicos e laboratoriais de inflamação significativamente maiores do que o observado em pacientes com CI. Seis pacientes (8,95%) do grupo CI desenvolveram características histológicas de DII florida após seis meses. Não foram identificados preditores independentes para essa conversão. Conclusão: Entre os 80 pacientes submetidos a colonoscopia e biópsia, o diagnóstico de CI foi feito em 67 (83,75%); destes, seis pacientes (8,95%) foram reexaminados após seis meses e apresentaram DII, sendo que essa conversão não foi associada a fatores preditivos.

Helicobacter pylori infection and risk of salmonella infection.

Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) infection is the most frequent infection worldwide and it has been postulated that it predisposes to multiple enteric pathogens and diarrheal diseases. Salmonella infection is common in tropical and under developed communities and is associated with wide range of diseases from gastroenteritis to typhoid fever. This study aimed at detecting the impact of H pylori infection on the incidence of salmonella infections.The study participants were sampled from cohorts of patients in four university hospitals in different Egyptian Governorates. Their age ranged from 20 to 59 years and followed up for a rising Widal test. Case patients (n = 109) were subjects who visited the outpatient clinic because of diarrhea and typhoid like illness. They were either positive for H pylori stool antigen (n = 53) or negative to it (n = 56). All patients were subjected to thorough history taking, clinical examination, routine laboratory investigations, abdominal ultrasonography, H pylori stool antigen detection, and serial Widal test assay.The proportion of salmonella-infected subjects was lower among case patients with H pylori infection (22.6%) than among those negative for H pylori (33.9%) albeit not statistically significant (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 0.57; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.24-1.33; P = .21). The association persisted nonsignificant after adjusting for sociodemographic variables (adjusted OR, 0.5; 95% CI, 0.18-1.39; P = .18). In a multivariate analysis that adjusted for sex, dietary habits, socioeconomic status, and educational level subjects who eat outdoors were associated with a significantly greater risk of salmonella typhi infection.Our findings suggest that there is no association between H pylori infection and salmonella infection in patients presented with typhoid fever or typhoid like illness.