According to guidelines from the American College of Gastroenterology, mucosal biopsy may help distinguish ulcerative colitis from infectious colitis in patients with acute onset of bloody diarrhea. In patients with ulcerative colitis, the mucosa more commonly shows distortion, separation, and atrophy of crypts; preferential homing of neutrophils to the crypt epithelium; chronic inflammatory cells in the lamina propria; basal lymphoid aggregates; "shortfall" of crypts not reaching to the muscularis mucosae; and an increased number of lymphocytes and plasma cells at the crypt bases.
For more the workup of suspected ulcerative colitis, read here.
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Cite this: Marc D. Basson. Fast Five Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Ulcerative Colitis? - Medscape - Oct 19, 2015.
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