Microscopic (collagenous and lymphocytic) colitis triggered by food allergy

Collagenous and lymphocytic colitis1,2 are rare3 diseases of unknown aetiology but several issues,1–3,5 in particular the good response to budesonide,7 are suggestive of immunopathology. Patients have watery diarrhoea without abnormal findings on colonoscopy1–5 but with increased numbers of intraepithelial lymphocytes, mast cells, and eosinophils5 on histological examination. We report six patients seen between 1993 and 1999 who were first diagnosed as having collagenous/lymphocytic colitis. Signs of allergy entailed a work up for food allergy. (table 1) View this table: Table 1  Patient characteristics All patients were investigated with skin prick testing, total and allergen specific …