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Intestinal spirochetosis
| Field | Value | |
|---|---|---|
| name | Intestinal spirochetosis | |
| synonyms | Intestinal spirochetes, colonic spirochetosis, colonic spirochetes, brachyspirosis | |
| image | Histopathology of intestinal spirochetosis.jpg | |
| caption | Histopathology of intestinal spirochetosis, showing basophilic, fringe-like, end-on-end attachment of filamentous densely packed spirochetes on the surface epithelium of the intestinal mucosa. H&E stain. | |
| field | Infectious disease |
Human intestinal spirochetosis, often called just intestinal spirochetosis when the human context is implicit, is an infection of the colonic-type mucosa with certain species of spirochetal bacteria. Similar infections sometimes occur in pigs, dogs, and birds; porcine intestinal spirochaetosis is an economically important disease of livestock.
Signs and symptoms
No clear association exists with complaints. However, potential associations include abdominal pain and watery diarrhea, which may be seen with blood; however, these findings are not specific and may be due to a number of other causes.
Cause
Human intestinal spirochetosis is caused by Brachyspira pilosicoli and Brachyspira aalborgi. Porcine and avian intestinal spirochetosis are caused by Brachyspira hyodysenteriae and Brachyspira pilosicoli.
Diagnosis
It is diagnosed by examination of tissue, i.e., biopsy. A hallmark finding is the presence of a “false brush border” on the luminal surface of the epithelium, formed by dense linear colonization of spirochetes.
Management
Symptomatic individuals can be treated with oral metronidazole.
References
References
- Elliot Weisenberg, M.D.. "Intestinal spirochetosis".
- "Intestinal Spirochetosis".
- (January 2004). "[Colonic spirochetes: an infrequent cause of adult diarrhea]". Gastroenterol Hepatol.
- Zotti, Sara. (2025-06-12). "Human intestinal spirochetosis presenting as colonic ulceration in an immunocompetent 65-year-old man". Infection.
This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.
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