Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0000737 (abdominal pain)
 31,184 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Brown bowel syndrome is a rare intestinal disorder associated with the deposition of lipofuscin pigment in the smooth muscle cells. We report two such cases presenting with intestinal pseudo-obstruction, abdominal pain, and body weight loss. Both cases had malabsorption and fatty liver. Exploratory laparotomy revealed brownish discoloration of the small bowel wall and enlargement of mesenteric lymph nodes. Light microscopy, autofluorescence and ultrastructure studies confirmed the deposition of lipofuscin pigments in the intestinal muscle cells and reticuloendothelial cells of mesenteric lymph nodes. In addition, the calf muscle biopsy of case 1 displayed myopathy and fatty replacement. Skeletal muscle strength of both patients was partially restored after parenteral and oral vitamin E supplement and other conservative treatment, but gastrointestinal symptoms of both patients continued to deteriorate. Thus, brown bowel syndrome associated with prolonged and severe malnutrition and possibly vitamin E deficiency appears only partially responsive to vitamin E supplementation.
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PMID:Brown bowel syndrome: report of two cases. 791 59

We report a case of a 79-year-old gentleman who presented to the emergency department with a 5-day history of abdominal pain, constipation, a progressively distending abdomen and new onset feculent vomiting on a background of a recent endoscopic decompression of a sigmoid volvulus. Investigations confirmed the presence of a recurrent sigmoid volvulus. Attempts to reduce this endoscopically failed and laparotomy with sub-total colectomy and ileostomy formation was performed. Histology from the resected specimen identified a distinct pathology, namely intestinal lipofuscinosis also known as brown bowel syndrome. Brown bowel syndrome is a recognized but rare complication of chronic long term malnutrition. It may present in a myriad of ways including atonia and, rarely, massive colonic dilatation, as in our case.
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PMID:Brown bowel syndrome, an unusual cause of sigmoid volvulus. 2959 62