Korean J Med.
2009 Jun;76(6):649-653.
Diagnosis of ulcerative colitis
- Affiliations
-
- 1Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea.
- 2Department of Internal Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Abstract
- Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the colon that is confined to the mucosa and submucosa. The diagnosis is based on a combination of clinical, endoscopic, and histological characteristics, as no single finding is diagnostic for UC. The most important symptoms of UC are rectal bleeding, urgency, and diarrhea. The typical endoscopic feature of UC is continuous, circumferential, and symmetric colonic involvement. The inflammation involves the rectum and may extend proximally. The mucosal biopsy shows crypt architecture distortion, mixed inflammatory cell infiltration in the lamina propria, increased plasma cells near the crypt bases, and basal lymphoid aggregates. In addition, many diseases, such as infectious causes, should be excluded from the differential diagnosis. Finally, an evaluation of the extent and severity of UC is important in determining how to treat patients.
