Collagenous colitis without diarrhoea at diagnosis – a follow up study

Objective: Chronic watery diarrhoea is a classical symptom of collagenous colitis (CC). However, in some cases, the typical histologic findings of CC can be found in patients without this symptom. In this study we have performed a follow up on patients with a confirmed histological diagnosis of CC without the typical symptom watery diarrhoea Patients and methods: A structured medical record follow-up was performed on the subgroup of patients without watery diarrhoea but diagnosed with the typical CC histologic appearance in a previous study of microscopic colitis. Results: At follow up after a median time of 8 years (range: 0.33-12 years), five of these fifteen patients developed bowel symptoms but only two developed characteristic CC symptoms with watery diarrhoea. Conclusion: The majority of patients without chronic watery diarrhoea at diagnosis remained free from this symptom during follow up and only in a few cases symptoms attributed to CC developed.