Chronic colitis in children. Problems of differential diagnosis

During the last few decades, there has been observed a "rejuvenation" of the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) onset in childhood. Very often the problem is narrowed down to the differential diagnosis of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, which are related to IBD, although in reality the spectrum of chronic IBD is much wider. A diagnosed case of microscopic (collagenous) colitis confirms the need for a wide diagnostic search in patients with IBD. Purpose - to describe differential diagnostic features of collagenous colitis and collagenous gastritis in young children. Clinical case. Observational data on a patient aged 1 year and 7 months with a special form of colitis (collagenous colitis in combination with collagenous gastritis) are presented. The peculiarities of this rare disease course in the examined patient, in whom the pathology debuted with gastric ulcers with hematemesis, anemia and diarrhea syndrome, were analyzed. The differential search complex stages are discussed in detail, the results of laboratory, instrumental and pathomorphological research methods are described. Information is provided on the treatment prospects of patients with a gastrointestinal tract collagenous pathological process. There is a justified need to take into account rare causes of digestive tract inflammation when observing young patients with a clinical picture similar to the IBD debut. The research was carried out in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The informed consent of the child's parents was obtained for conducting the studies. No conflict of interests was declared by the authors.