Unresponsive enteropathy associated with circulating enterocyte autoantibodies in a boy with common variable hypogammaglobulinemia and type I diabetes

J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 1988 Jul-Aug;7(4):608-13. doi: 10.1097/00005176-198807000-00022.

Abstract

A 13-year-old boy with common variable hypogammaglobulinemia and type I diabetes developed a severe enteropathy that proved to be unresponsive to any treatment, including total parenteral nutrition. No evidence of known etiologies of malabsorption and/or secretory diarrhea was found in this subject. A high titer of complement-fixing enterocyte autoantibody was persistently found in the patient's serum. These features suggest that the enteropathy of this primarily immunodeficient subject had an autoimmune origin. A cycle of cyclophosphamide failed to show any amelioration of the diarrhea or a significant decrease in the autoantibody titer.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Agammaglobulinemia / immunology*
  • Autoantibodies / immunology*
  • Autoimmune Diseases / immunology*
  • Biopsy
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / immunology*
  • Diarrhea / immunology
  • Fluorescent Antibody Technique
  • Humans
  • Jejunal Diseases / immunology*
  • Jejunal Diseases / pathology
  • Jejunum / pathology
  • Male
  • Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
  • Parenteral Nutrition, Total

Substances

  • Autoantibodies