Mucosal vs histological healing...

[izzi'smom]

Thoughts?

Izz's colon is visually looking fairly good-loss of features but visual blood vessels and occasional ulcers.

Microscopically she has chronic mild inflammation.

Her CRP is 1.4, so not exactly a great indicator of disease.

Clinically I would consider her in remission-she is practically asymptomatic.

Anyone have any input?

 

[Patricia56]

No she is not in remission.

Mucosal healing is the goal. Recent research has shown pretty conclusively that once you have gotten mucosal healing you are likely to have a solid remission that lasts.

 

[Tesscorm]

What is the difference between mucosal and histological healing?

 

[Patricia56]

I was kind of avoiding the fact that those two terms really don't fit together the way they were used - at least not as I understand them.

Histology is the study of the microscopic anatomy of cells/tissues. So histological healing would refer to healing at the microscopic level of the cells and tissues.

Mucosa is the tissue that forms the innermost lining of the intestinal tract and consists of many different kinds of cells.

So if you have histological healing you would by definition have mucosal healing.

From her post I interpreted izzi's mom's question to be about comparing mucosal healing with visible signs of healing/health in the mucosa.

Unfortunately, just because the mucosa looks fine to the naked eye does not mean that healing has occurred at the cellular level. That's why GI's take biopies even though the mucosa looks fine.

For a really nice video lecture on the Histology of the small intestines you can check out this you tube video -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c38brUDun7s