Korean J Intern Med.  2007 Mar;22(1):1-7. 10.3904/kjim.2007.22.1.1.

The Usefulness of Angiotensin Converting Enzyme in the Differential Diagnosis of Crohn's Disease and Intestinal Tuberculosis

• Kwon CI
• Park PW
• Kang H
• Kim GI
• Cha ST
• Kim KS
• Ko KH
• Hong SP
• Hwang SG
• Rim KS

• KMID: 1717985
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3904/kjim.2007.22.1.1

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Since the pathologic findings of Crohn's disease (CD) and intestinal tuberculosis (IT) overlap to a large degree, the development of other biomarkers will be of great help for making the differential diagnosis of these 2 diseases. The aim of the present study is to examine the clinical efficacy of using the tissue angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) assay in making the differential diagnosis between CD and IT. METHODS: Tissue specimens were obtained from 36 patients who were diagnosed with CD or IT by the colonoscopic biopsy, as well as by the clinical findings. The expression of tissue ACE was detected by immunohistochemical staining. The optimal cut-off value of the immunoreactive scoring (IRS) system we used to differentiate CD from IT was determined by analysis of the ROC curve and AUROC. RESULTS: Granuloma was present in 15 of 19 patients with CD (78.9%) and in 15 of 17 patients with IT (88.2%). ACE was present in the cytoplasm of the epithelioid cells in the granulomas from 13 of 15 patients with CD and in 14 of 15 patients with IT. The IRS scores of ACE were greater in the patients with CD than that of the patients with IT (8.07+/-4.38 vs. 4.13+/-2.47, respectively, p=0.006). In differentiating CD from IT, the AUROC curve for the IRS of ACE was 0.767 with a sensitivity of 66.7%, a specificity of 93.3% and the cut-off point was 7.5. CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study suggest that the assessment of the tissue ACE expression can be helpful for making the differential diagnosis between CD and IT.

Keyword

Angiotensin converting enzyme; Crohn disease; Gastrointestinal tuberculosis; Granuloma

MeSH Terms

Tuberculosis, Gastrointestinal/*diagnosis/enzymology/pathology
Retrospective Studies
Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A/*metabolism
Middle Aged
Male
Immunoenzyme Techniques
Humans
Granuloma/pathology
Female
Diagnosis, Differential
Crohn Disease/*diagnosis/enzymology/pathology
Colonoscopy
Biological Markers
Aged
Adult
Adolescent