Noppawan Chotikawichean M.D., Anapat Sanpavat M.D.
Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University
ABSTRACT
Objective: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic infl ammation of the digestive tract with ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD) being among the two most common IBD conditions. To evaluate the effi cacy of diagnosis by histomorphology, the histologic features of ninety Thai patients with IBD were evaluated.
Materials and methods: The research included forty-seven (47) cases with UC and forty-three (43) cases with CD. Biopsy slides before treatment were reviewed and the histologic features were evaluated, including crypt architectural abnormality, epithelial cell abnormality, infl ammatory features and disease activity.
Results: While most colonic biopsies of UC and CD have features of chronic colitis, including architectural distortion and basal plasmacytosis, the histomorphology of most ileal biopsies were within the normal limit.
Conclusion: The differentiation between UC and CD cannot be done by histomorphology alone. Rather, identifying the distribution of disease by colonoscopic evaluation is needed to accurately differentiate between UC and CD.
