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Background. It is important to search for biological markers with high specificity and sensitivity as a non-invasive method for accurate diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), in particular, differentiation of ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD), which is important for both prognosis and treatment. The purpose of the study was to determine the titer of anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibodies (ASCA) IgG, IgA, perinuclear antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (p-ANCA) and their clinical significance in patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Materials and methods. The study included 49 patients with IBD who were treated at the Department of Intestinal Di­seases of the State Institution “Institute of Gastroenterology of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine”. All patients were divided into two groups: 33 individuals with UC and 16 with CD. In addition, the patients were divided into groups depending on the severity of UC course: mild — 3, moderate — 26, and 4 individuals had severe UC. Among patients with CD, severity was moderate in 13 cases and severe CD was detected in 3 cases. p-ANCA IgG were determined by an indirect immunofluorescence assay. The serum level of ASCA IgA and IgG was evaluated by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The results were statistically processed using the Statistica 6.1 software package. Results. Most patients with UC appeared to have p-ANCA, and in patients with CD, an increased level of ASCA IgA and IgG was found. Among patients with CD, the level of ASCA IgA and IgG depended on the severity of the disease, which was confirmed by the revealed correlation between their level and the severity of the disease (r = 0.608; p = 0.012). Analysis showed that the p-ANCA IgG test for confirming the diagnosis of UC has a sensitivity of 63 % and a specificity of 86 %, whereas the presence of an elevated level of ASCA IgA or IgG for the diagnosis of CD has a sensitivity of 72 % and a specificity of 82 %. The combination of positive p-ANCA IgG and negative ASCA IgA, IgG in patients with UC showed a sensitivity and specificity of 75.6 and 68.8 %, respectively, with a diagnostic accuracy of 68.8 %. For combination of positive ASCA IgA, IgG and negative p-ANCA IgG in patients with CD, the sensitivity was 81.3 % and the specificity was 80 % with a diagnostic accuracy of 80.8 %. Therefore, the simultaneous determination of ASCA IgA, IgG and p-ANCA IgG increases the positive predictive accuracy in the differential diagnosis of UC and CD among patients with IBD. Conclusions. It was found that the separate assessment of ASCA IgA, IgG and p-ANCA IgG for the differentiation of UC and CD has lower sensitivity and specificity, but when the two tests are combined, the predictive value of a positive result and specificity can be significantly increased.

Background. Inflammatory bowel diseases, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, are an urgent problem of modern gastroenterology. Therefore, the discovery of new laboratory approaches makes it possible to assess the degree of the disease. Purpose: to reveal the relationship between morphological manifestations and immunological indicators in patients with ulcerative colitis. Materials and methods. The studies were conducted on biological material (blood and colonic biopsy samples) of 90 patients with ulcerative colitis. The thickness of the mucosa, density of the inflammatory infiltrate and its composition, crypt sizes, their architectonics, the presence of crypt abscesses, atrophic and fibrotic changes were calculated in biopsies by morphological and morphometric methods. Immunological studies included the evaluation of mononuclear cells, the levels of B-lymphocytes, interleukin-10, tumor necrosis factor α, immunoglobulins (Ig) A, M, G. Results. The histological activity of the disease was determined by an increased level of inflammatory infiltrate (14,431.4 ± 483.3 per 1 mm2 of stroma) and the presence of many neutrophilic granulocytes (212.2 ± 20.9 per 1 mm2 of stroma) and lymphocytes (2,922.8 ± 76.6 per 1 mm2 of stroma) in it. Also, some patients had crypt abscesses (36.7 % of the total number of patients) and breaches in the epithelial integrity (54.4 % of the total number of patients). A correlation was found between the level of CD22+ lymphocytes and some morphometric parameters: the width of the crypts (r = 0.27; P

Background. Chronic inflammatory bowel disease (CIBD) is one of the most complex nosological groups in gastroenterology, due to the constant increase in their prevalence, shif­ting the onset to an earlier age, increasing the frequency of severe complicated forms. The most common representative of CIBD is nonspecific ulcerative colitis (UC). At the heart of UC is a diffuse ulcerative-inflammatory lesion of the colon. The leading role in the diagnosis of UC belongs to the comparison of the results of endoscopic and morphological methods of research. The morphological method of colonobiopsy examination in UC is the gold standard of diagnosis and makes it possible to determine the signs of disease activity even in endoscopic remission. In contrast to descriptive histology, pathological anatomy, quantitative morphology complements and clarifies the data of studies conducted by conventional morphological methods from the standpoint of generalized approaches. The purpose of quantitative morphology is the maximum objectification of the study of qualitative and quantitative manifestations of pathological processes, nosological units, their pathogenesis, morphogenesis, as well as the exclusion of measurement errors and, as far as possible, the subjectivity of the researcher. The purpose of the study: to conduct a comparative histological examination of biopsies of the mucous membrane of the colon in patients with UC of different severity of the disease. Materials and methods. Histological examination of intestinal biopsy specimens was performed in 55 patients with ulcerative colitis. Patients were divided according to the severity of the disease. Group I (n = 11) — mild form, group II (n = 39) — moderate form and group III (n = 5) — patients with severe UC. Results. In 63.6 % with a mild severity of UC edema was not observed, the condition of the epithelium was unchanged, the architecture is not disturbed. Crypt abscesses were detected in 54.6 % of cases, atrophic changes — in 90.9 %. Inflammatory infiltrate consisted mainly of neutrophils ((176.0 ± 8.22) per 1 mm2 stroma) and mononuclear cells ((232.4 ± 22.83) per 1 mm2 stroma), which indicates the activation of regenerative functions of the mucous membrane. From morphometric measurements the highest indicator was the height of the crypt epithelium (38.3 ± 1.49) μm. With an moderate degree of UC in 33.3 % of cases there was a violation of the integrity of the epithelium, atrophic changes were diagnosed in 23.1 % of cases, violations of crypt architecture — in 17.9 %, the presence of crypt abscesses — 48.8 %, edema — 64.1 %. Morphometric measurement of intestinal mucosal biopsies with moderate severity of UC showed the highest crypt depth (452.6 ± 8.12) μm, crypt epithelial height (42.3 ± 0.33) μm and the number of goblet cells (26.6 ± 1.43). The height of the crypt epithelium was positively correlated with the number of goblet cells (r = 0.30; p