Microvillous Inclusion Disease as a Cause of Protracted Diarrhea

Microvillous inclusion disease (MVID), also known as congenital microvillus atrophy, was first described by Davidson et al. in 1978. Till date, only a handful of cases with MVID have been described in English literature. It is an autosomal recessive disorder with no sex predisposition and more commonly noted in countries with prevalent consanguineous marriages. These patients usually present with intractable secretory diarrhea in early days of life. The pathognomonic findings of MVID are villous atrophy along with the formation of intracellular microvillous inclusions on electron microscopy. Till date, no curative therapy exists, and prognosis mainly depends upon parenteral nutrition. Small bowel transplantation is one of the treatment options. Clinician and pathologist should consider the possibility of MVID in the differential diagnosis of chronic intractable diarrhea in an infant. Herein, authors are describing a case of intractable diarrhea with MVID phenotype diagnosed in a 3-mo-old male child who presented with intractable diarrhea in an outside hospital, and the diagnostic workup was performed by the authors on endoscopic biopsy sample.