Pitfalls in the Histological Diagnosis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease on Colorectal Biopsies

Histopathological examination of appropriate colorectal biopsyspecimens allows accurate identification of chronic inflammatory bowel diseasein the majority of cases. Pitfalls, however, appear because overlapping histologicalfeatures occur among the various forms of colitis or because a specific form ofcolitis may exhibit incomplete expression of its characteristic features. Pitfallscan be minimized if the histological findings are considered in the context of allother clinical and investigative data