Is Patient Medication History Key to Treating Collagenous Sprue?

Celiac.com 04/22/2020 - Collagenous sprue, aka enteritis, is a rare mucosal small intestinal disorder marked by a clear histopathological lesion containing collagen. People who suffer from collagenous sprue frequently experience severe diarrhea, progressive nutrient malabsorption, protein depletion and weight loss.

Closely linked to celiac disease, collagenous sprue is notoriously difficult to treat, and medical literature records only a few claims of successful therapy. Clinical studies suggest myriad causes for collagenous sprue, with prognoses often depending on the cause. 

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Recently, collagenous sprue has been found in numerous diverse settings, including as a paraneoplastic feature of early malignancies, and as a result of the toxic medications including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and the angiotensin II receptor antagonist, olmesartan. 

In a paper published in the International Journal of Celiac Disease, Hugh James Freeman, of the Department of Medicine (Gastroenterology), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, writes about the return to normal of such clinical and pathological changes, and notes that knowing the medication history of such patients is crucial to treating patients with sprue-like intestinal disease.

Knowing the patient medication history can provide a crucial roadmap for treating such patients.

Read more in the International Journal of Celiac Disease. 2019, 7(1), 13-15. DOI: 10.12691/ijcd-7-1-2