Colite lymphocytaire : apport du pathologiste et interaction entre clinicien et pathologiste

Lymphocytic colitis (LC), a rare entity in microscopic colitis, is an inflammatory disease of the colonic mucosa. The pathologist plays a key role in the positive diagnosis of LC by eliminating a number of differential diagnoses. However, this diagnosis depends on the interaction between the clinician and the pathologist and comparison between histological and clinical findings, which enable correct interpretation. The majority of recent work enhances our knowledge of the histopathogenic, causal and therapeutic factors. However, the debate about the distinction between LC and collagen colitis is still going on, in which the pathologist plays a key role. The diagnosis of microscopic colitis is purely based on the findings of histological examination of systematic colonic biopsies, with a correlation between the clinical manifestations of the patient with chronic diarrhoea and normal endoscopy and the morphology of biopsies of LC lesions. The purpose of our study is to clarify the role and contribution of the pathologist in positive and differential diagnosis of LC and to discuss the interaction between clinicians and pathologists.