Prevalencia de colitis microscópica en una

Summary Introduction. The microscopic colitis (MC) is charac- terized by the presence of aqueous chronic diarrhea (ACD) with inflammatory elements in the colon only detectable by microscopy. Objectives. To know the pre- valence of MC in the group of patients with ACD at- tending the Endoscopy Service of the British Hospital from Montevideo. Material and methods. We retros- pectively included patients with ACD who were studied by endoscopy during a period of 5 years and the endos- copy was normal or showed minimal alterations. Biop- sies in different parts of the colon were taken to this group of patients aiming to diagnose this entity. Results. We included 180 patients, 101 women (56%) and 79 men (44%). No lesion was found in the endoscopy in 67% of them, 27% had a diverticular colopathy and 5% a non-specific colitis. Out of the total number of pa- tients, 9% had a histological study compatible with MC, 82% had lymphocytic colitis (CL) and 18% colla- genous colitis (CC), with a ratio between men and wo- men of 1.8:1 and 1:2, respectively. The mean age for the diagnosis was 43 years old in the group of CL and 61 years old in the group of CC. Endoscopic lesions were not found in 94% of patients with MC and only 1 pa- tient presented a non-specific colitis at the endoscopy.