Olmesartan is an angiotensin II receptor blocker licensed for the treatment of hypertension. It can cause a sprue-like enteropathy (SLE), characterised by chronic diarrhoea, weight loss and villous atrophy. Transiently raised anti-tissue transglutaminase (ATTG) antibody has also been rarely reported in the literature.We describe the case of a woman in her mid-50s, who presented with a history of intermittent loose stools over 1 year, associated with significant weight loss. She had two marginally raised serum ATTG antibody tests during her work-up.After extensive investigations, she was diagnosed with olmesartan-induced enteropathy. On subsequent follow-up, her symptoms had resolved with cessation of her olmesartan therapy.This case adds to existing literature, highlighting the importance of considering olmesartan as a possible differential diagnosis for SLE. It also reports the presence of a raised ATTG antibody which is infrequently reported in this context.

Autoimmune enteropathy is a rare cause of chronic intractable diarrhea and is present in <1 in 100,000 infants. We report the case of a 9-month-old boy who presented with intractable diarrhea and vomiting. Genetic panel testing revealed a STAT3 heterozygous mutation in exon 6, suggesting infantile-onset multisystem autoimmune disease-1. The patient was initially treated with steroids and sulfasalazine. However, on tapering steroids, he had another episode of diarrhea and was subsequently put on baricitinib to which he responded.

BACKGROUND: Short bowel syndrome (SBS) in adults is defined as having less than 180 to 200 cm of remaining small bowel. Many literature sources do not provide precise epidemiological data, and challenges in estimating the prevalence of SBS include its multifactorial etiology and varying definitions. The most common pathologies leading to SBS include Crohn disease, mesenteric ischemia, radiation enteritis, post-surgical adhesions, and post-operative complications.
METHODS: This article presents a clinical case of a 76-year-old Lithuanian patient who underwent parenteral nutrition for four months due to SBS. Before the following diagnosis, the patient had undergone two surgeries. During the hospitalization, life-threatening conditions such as stercoral peritonitis, septic shock, and acute respiratory failure, were observed and treated. As a result of SBS, hypoproteinemia and hypoalbuminemia developed, leading to the prescription of full parenteral nutrition. After correcting the malnutrition, a third surgery was performed, resulting in the discontinuation of parenteral nutrition and the resumption of a regular diet.
CONCLUSIONS: Parenteral nutrition is the sole effective method for preserving the lives of patients with a short segment of the intestine. While on parenteral nutrition, patients can be prepared for reconstructive surgery.

Although present in a significant number of people, hypomagnesemia is still an undervalued diagnosis. Therefore, its awareness and comprehensive etiological investigation become imperative. Among its multiple possible causes, drug iatrogenesis plays an important and often overlooked role. Here, we present a case of a 78-year-old female with recurrent bouts of severe hypomagnesemia of unknown origin, which, after an extensive study, was determined to be induced by proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). As such, our goal is to raise awareness of the potential risk of this side effect even in monotherapy, as well as to elucidate its underlying mechanisms, which are still not fully understood. Furthermore, it is intended to foster a systematic therapeutic review in these patients and raise discussion about the potential benefits of systematic magnesium monitoring in patients on long-term PPIs.

BACKGROUND: Strategies for diagnosing celiac disease (CD) include case-finding and population-screening programs. Case finding consists of testing individuals at increased risk for the disease due to symptoms or associated conditions. Screening programs are widespread campaigns, which definitely perform better in terms of unveiling CD diagnoses but nowadays are still debatable. The global prevalence of CD is around 1% but it almost doubles when considering screening programs among school children. Within this framework, we aimed to estimate the prevalence of CD among hospitalized children in the Pediatric Department of a Southern Italy University Hospital in the period from January 2018 through December 2021. In addition, we attempted to explore, at the time of diagnosis, the prevalence of leading clinical alerts due to malabsorption/malnutrition such as anemia or failure to thrive or due to systemic inflammation/immune dysfunction as hypertransaminasemia and thyroid dysfunction.
METHODS: Data records of pediatric patients admitted as inpatients and tested by anti-transglutaminase IgA antibodies (TGA-IgA) were retrospectively analyzed. CD was diagnosed according to either 2012 or 2020 ESPGHAN guidelines, depending on the year of diagnosis. CD autoimmunity (CDA) was a wider group defined within our protocol if patients had elevated TGA-IgA on at least one occasion, regardless of anti-endomysial antibodies (EMA-IgA) and without biopsy confirmation.
RESULTS: During the observation period, 3608 pediatric patients were admitted and 1320 were screened for CD (median age 5 years, IQR 2-9 years; CD test rate: 36.6% out of all admissions). The available prevalence of newly diagnosed CD was 1.59% (21 patients diagnosed) and the available prevalence of CDA was 3.86% (51 subjects). Among CD patients, underweight/malnourished children accounted for 28.6% (6 out of 21).
CONCLUSIONS: The estimated prevalence of CD diagnoses within our setting was comparable to the most recent population-screening programs. The estimated prevalence of CDA was even higher. A hospital-admission CD testing during routine blood draws might be a non-invasive, cost-effective and valuable approach to reduce discrepancy of prevalence between case-finding and population-screening programs.

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Tablets of levothyroxine (LT4) are the most used form for the treatment of hypothyroidism. Some patients may present with refractory hypothyroidism despite a high daily LT4 dose. We report the case of a 49-year-old woman who was admitted to our department for refractory hypothyroidism. She was treated with 300 μg oral LT4 tablets daily (3.9 μg/kg/day). Despite good compliance and regular intake of high doses of LT4, she had persistent symptoms of hypothyroidism and a thyroid-stimulating hormone level of 92.4 mIU/L. LT4 absorption test was consistent with the diagnosis of malabsorption. Etiological investigations revealed Helicobacter pylori gastritis. Helicobacter infection was adequately treated, but symptoms of hypothyroidism and elevated thyroid-stimulating hormone persisted. Increased LT4 doses (400 μg) failed to normalize thyroid-stimulating hormone levels. Thus, she was put on LT4 liquid form at a dose of 80 drops/day per day (400 µg). Two weeks later, she presented with clinical and biological improvement with a normal free thyroxine level of 1.14 ng/dL. Patients with gastrointestinal disorders may present with refractory hypothyroidism despite increasing doses of LT4. Switching to liquid formulation may resolve this problem.

Cardiac conduction disorder may have a wide range of aetiology and can manifest with symptomatic bradycardia and syncope. Celiac disease is a malabsorptive long-term autoimmune disorder where the small intestine is the primarily affected organ due to gluten intolerance in genetically predisposed individuals. The associations between celiac disease and cardiac pathology are uncommon. We report a case of a 50-year-old woman with a known case of celiac disease who presented with a symptomatic cardiac conduction abnormality that improved with a gluten-free diet.
CONCLUSIONS: Celiac disease is a malabsorptive long-term autoimmune disorder where the small intestine is the primarily affected organ due to gluten intolerance and affects 1% of the general population.Cardiovascular pathology, including dilated cardiomyopathy, myocarditis, arrhythmias, and premature atherosclerosis, was found to be more prevalent in patients with celiac disease than in others without celiac disease.The association of celiac disease with isolated advanced atrioventricular conduction abnormality is rare and a gluten-free diet may help improve the conduction abnormality.

BACKGROUND: A 65-year-old female patient could no longer take oral food or medications due to a duodenal occlusion associated with metastatic urothelial carcinoma. Her pre-existing chemotherapy-induced polyneuropathy had been well treated with pregabalin orally.
METHODS: Since only preparations for oral use of pregabalin are available, pregabalin suppositories were compounded by the hospital pharmacy for rectal use in this patient.
RESULTS: With the rectal administration, the treatment was successfully continued; we measured a good increase in serum levels and the symptoms improved significantly.
CONCLUSIONS: Cancer patients often need to be treated with co-analgesics. At the end of life, treatment often cannot be continued due to lack of other than oral administration. Our case adds to the low evidence of pregabalin administered rectally.

Small bowel villous atrophy is most often caused by celiac disease in the Western world, but other diseases should be explored in patients without positive serology. Adult-onset autoimmune enteropathy (AIE) is a rare cause of villous atrophy first known in children with T-cell dysregulation but also seen in adults with autoimmune predispositions. Here, an 82-year-old woman with autoimmune thyroiditis was admitted with weight loss and watery diarrhoea not responding to diet change. Endoscopy revealed villous atrophy both in the duodenum and in the ileum, but no positive celiac serology. A diagnosis of autoimmune enteropathy was made based on chronic diarrhoea not responding to diet change, autoimmune predisposition, villous atrophy, typical histological findings, and no evidence of immunodeficiency or medications causing villous atrophy. The patient was treated to good effect with corticosteroids but needed total parenteral nutrition while admitted. AIE should be considered in villous atrophy without positive celiac serology.