In vivo diagnosis of lymphocytic colitis by confocal laser endomicroscopy
- 1Department of Medicine I, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
- 2Institute of Pathology, Klinikum Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
- Correspondence to Professor Helmut Neumann, Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine I, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Ulmenweg 18, 91054 Erlangen, Germany; helmut.neumann{at}uk-erlangen.de
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Contributors HN: study idea, endomicroscopy, manuscript writing, final revision of the article. MG: endomicroscopy, final revision of the article. MV: histology, final revision of the article. MFN: manuscript writing, final revision of the article.
- Accepted 4 July 2012
- Published Online First 31 July 2012
We read with interest the paper by Moussata et al and the GI snapshot by Neufert et al, published in recent issues of Gut.1 ,2 The authors described in these outstanding articles the potential of confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) to either image intramucosal bacteria in vivo in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases and also to visualise disease specific findings (‘foamy macrophages’) in a patient with Mycobacterium avium intracellulare infection.
CLE was recently introduced as a new emerging endoscopic imaging modality which due to its inherent capability of providing in vivo images of microscopic tissue changes at 1000-fold …
