CD3 immunohistochemical staining in diagnosis of lymphocytic colitis

Anne-Marie Kanstrup Fiehn, Ulla Engel, Susanne Holck, Lars Kristian Munck, Peter Johan Heiberg Engel

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Summary Microscopic colitis (MC) is a common cause of chronic watery diarrhea. Traditionally, MC encompasses the 2 subgroups lymphocytic colitis (LC) and collagenous colitis, but recently, an additional subgroup, MC incomplete, has been introduced. Distinguishing between the subgroups relies exclusively on histopathologic evaluation. In the present study, 4 pathologists evaluated 156 archived biopsies originally diagnosed as LC or LC incomplete (LCi). Each pathologist assigned a diagnosis of LC, LCi, or nonspecific inflammation to all cases at 2 independent assessments. At the first assessment, hematoxylin and eosin (HE) stainings were available. At the second assessment, a supplementary CD3 immunohistochemical staining was also available. The aim was to evaluate whether a supplementary CD3 would increase the diagnostic agreement among pathologists, and whether a CD3 stain would change the diagnosis based on HE staining only. After the complete assessment, the cases were divided into 3 groups, that is, full agreement, partial agreement, and disagreement. The CD3 staining increased the number of cases with full agreement from 60 to 78. One hundred thirty-one cases with agreement or partial diagnostic agreement based on HE + CD3 were compared with the HE diagnoses. In 44 (34%) of 131 cases, CD3 changed the diagnosis. Cases assigned to the LCi category based on HE were often changed by a supplementary CD3. Conclusively, it is recommended to use a CD3 before giving the histopathologic diagnosis of LCi.

Original languageEnglish
JournalHuman Pathology
Volume48
Pages (from-to)25-31
Number of pages7
ISSN0046-8177
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2016

Keywords

  • Antigens, CD3
  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • Colitis, Lymphocytic
  • Humans
  • Immunohistochemistry
  • Observer Variation
  • Journal Article

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