[Immunoproliferative disease of the small intestine. A rare differential diagnosis of Crohn's disease].

For 2 years a 39-year-old Turkish man had had abdominal pain as well as weight loss of more than 10 kg over 4 months, associated with a raised ESR (33 mm/h) and recurrent gastrointestinal bleedings which endoscopy revealed to have been caused by a marked erosive duodenitis. Biopsies from the duodenum and terminal ileum demonstrated lymphoplasmocytic infiltration of the entire small intestine in the sense of immunoproliferative small intestinal disease (IPSID). By immunohistochemistry the lymphoplasmacellular infiltrate showed polyclonal expression of IgA without IgA increase in serum, urine and duodenal juice. The patient was treated with tetracycline (500 mg twice daily) for one year. The symptoms and histological lesions were much improved after 4 months. One year after diagnosis he was symptom-free.