Conductance Scanning Pinpoints Colon 'Leaks'

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Conductance Scanning Pinpoints Colon 'Leaks' in Ulcerative Colitis

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Dec 26 - Use of an electrophysiological

imaging systems allows detection of epithelial barrier defects in

colon specimens, an approach which might eventually be of use in

treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, according to German

researchers.

Dr. Alfred H. Gitter and colleagues from the Freie Universitat,

Berlin, report in the December issue of Gastroenterology that they

compared results from conductance scanning of specimens from colonic

surgery with those of conventional histological examination of the

same tissues.

Sigmoid colon samples studied included noninflamed controls as well

as inflamed material obtained from patients with ulcerative colitis

who had undergone colectomy.

Overall conductivity in specimens with mild ulcerative colitis, and

thus an intact epithelium, was 35% higher than in controls and in

moderate-to-severe inflammation it was 300% higher.

Moreover the spatial distribution of conductance was even in

controls, but showed " dramatic leaks " in the ulcerative colitis

specimens. Leaks in specimens with mild inflammation and no

epithelial lesion were the foci of epithelial apoptosis. In moderate-

to-severe inflammation, they correlated with epithelial erosion or

ulcer-type lesions or with crypt abscesses.

Local leaks were responsible for 19% of overall epithelial

conductivity in mild inflammation, and 65% in moderate-to-severe

inflammation.

Commenting on the findings, Dr. Gitter told Reuters Health that this

technique " allowed [doctors], for the first time, to locate and

quantify functional defects in the epithelial barrier of the inflamed

colon. In the future, if the method can be adapted for in vivo

application...topical treatment of early stages of inflammatory bowel

disease may become feasible. "

Gastroenterology 2001;121:1320-1328.