Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0024523 (malabsorption)
 7,319 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A 46-year-old man with nontropical sprue had anemia and hypoproteinemia for several years, until his condition was diagnosed and treated with dietary measures. Within a year after the diagnosis, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy developed, and the patient had a slightly fluctuating chronic downhill course until he died 10 years later. It is postulated that this patient's immune deficiency was related to his malabsorption syndrome and hypoglobulinemia, and the course became unusually protracted (longest reported course in the American literature) because of restoration of plasma protein levels. Autopsy showed the classic findings of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, with much tissue loss of subcortical white matter and active perivascular inflammatory foci with numerous eosinophilic granulocytes. On electron microscopy, oligodendrocyte nuclei and cytoplasm were crowded with virions, but many myelin sheaths invested by severely infected oligodendrocytic processes were remarkably well preserved. This fact would argue against a direct cause-and-effect relationship between infection of oligodendrocytes and myelin breakdown in progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. The likelihood of an autoimmune mechanism at work in this disease is suggested, and the role of eosinophils and other cells in such process is considered.
 ...
PMID:Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy with 10-year survival in a patient with nontropical sprue. Report of a case with unusual light and electron microscopic features. 123 16

Lymphocytic-plasmacytic enteritis (LPE) was diagnosed by intestinal biopsy in 24 dogs with chronic small intestinal diarrhea. Vomiting, weight loss, and reduced appetite were frequent. Breed predispositions were not documented, although four patients were German Shepherd dogs. Hypoproteinemia, hypoalbuminemia, and hypoglobulinemia were common and most likely a result of protein-losing enteropathy. Other biochemical abnormalities were uncommon. Intestinal malabsorption was common. Neutrophilia (sometimes with increased band neutrophils), monocytosis, lymphopenia, and eosinopenia were the most consistent hematologic abnormalities. The severity of the lymphocytic-plasmacytic infiltration was not significantly different (P greater than 0.05) between regions of small intestine. However, the severity of cellular infiltration often varied among different regions of small intestine in the same dog. Changes in villous architecture and lacteal dilation were common. Intestinal nematode infestation was diagnosed in five dogs, and pancreatic exocrine insufficiency was diagnosed in one dog. In the remaining 18 dogs, besides LPE, no other associated or concurrent intestinal disease was diagnosed.
 ...
PMID:Lymphocytic-plasmacytic enteritis in 24 dogs. 234 21

Infection with Mycobacterium intracellulare serotype 10 was diagnosed in 2 rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) in a closed colony of 90 animals. The clinicopathologic presentation in 1 animal with advanced disease was characterized by a precipitous weight loss, therapeutically unresponsive diarrhea, anemia, weakness, prostration, refractory tuberculin tests (using mammalian old tuberculin and M bovis purified protein derivative tuberculin), and disseminated granulomas in the lungs, spleen, liver, kidneys, lymph nodes, salivary glands, and intestines. The lamina propria throughout the large and small intestines was infiltrated with mycobacteria-laden macrophages. Severe hypoproteinemia, hypoalbuminemia, hypoglobulinemia, mild hypocalcemia, and edema were compatible with a malabsorption-like syndrome. The 2nd animal was clinically normal, but a weak positive tuberculin reaction to M bovis purified protein derivative at 72 hours necessitated euthanasia. This animal's disease was characterized by microgranulomas in the lungs, bronchial lymph nodes, liver, and pancreas, without involvement of the gastrointestinal tract. There was no evidence of M intracellulare infection in the remaining 88 animals in the colony, as determined by mycobacterial cultures of tracheobronchial washings, additional tuberculin testing, thoracic radiography, and mycobacterial culture of the drinking water. Tuberculin testing and thoracic radiographs of personnel working with the nonhuman primates were also negative. These cases were considered to be important because both animals were infected with the same serotype and because there has been an increasing number of isolations of this organism in human infections throughout Massachusetts. Drug-sensitivity testing revealed the organism to be sensitive to cycloserine and resistant to isoniazid, rifampin, ethambutol, streptomycin, kanamycin, and pyrazinamide.
 ...
PMID:Nontuberculous mycobacterial infection attributable to Mycobacterium intracellulare serotype 10 in two rhesus monkeys. 717 60

We report a patient with life-threatening refractory sprue who was dependent on high doses of corticosteroids to prevent severe diarrhea, malabsorption, and villous atrophy. Azathioprine allowed tapering of corticosteroids to lower doses, while maintaining remission in histology and in objective measures of malabsorption. Immunosuppressive therapy, however, is not without risks, particularly in patients with associated hypoglobulinemia.
 ...
PMID:Azathioprine in refractory sprue. 1040 70

Norwegian Lundehunds are often affected by gastrointestinal disease, the most common clinical signs of which are intermittent diarrhea, vomiting, weight loss, lethargy, ascites, and subcutaneous edema of the hind legs. The most frequent laboratory changes include hypoalbuminemia (with or without hypoglobulinemia), hypocalcemia, a decrease in the serum cobalamin concentration, and an increase or decrease in the serum folate concentration, reflecting microbial synthesis or malabsorption, respectively. Histopathologic abnormalities can include chronic atrophic gastritis, intestinal lymphangiectasia, and lymphoplasmacytic enteritis. Because the underlying cause of gastroenteropathy in Norwegian Lundehunds has not been identified, treatment is symptomatic.
 ...
PMID:Gastroenteropathy in Norwegian Lundehunds. 1784