Active idiopathic ulcerative colitis in a patient with ongoing HIV-related immunodepression.

It is suspected that immune mechanisms are important in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis. The following is a case report of a patient with human immunodeficiency virus-related immunodeficiency whose ulcerative colitis ran a course independent of the depression of his peripheral CD4 cells. Thus, peripheral CD4 cells may have little role in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis.