Retrospective study of pathologically proven colitis in King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital

To assess the basic clinicopathological information of colonic inflammation in Thai patients, the authors retrospectively analyzed the 249 biopsied cases with pathological diagnosis as colitis in King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital during the five-year period from 1998 to 2002. All subjects were included in this study, whether newly diagnosed or follow-up cases. There were 122 (49%) males and 127 (51%) females with the mean age of 51 years. Non-specific colitis was the most frequent histological diagnosis (72%), followed by infectious colitis (12%), in particular mycobacterial infection. The biopsy specimens were commonly obtained from the rectosigmoid colon (38%). Mucous bloody diarrhea (28%), watery diarrhea (26%), and lower gastrointestinal bleeding (19%) were the three most common symptoms at presentation in order of frequency.