The usefulness of angiotensin converting enzyme in the differential diagnosis of Crohn's disease and intestinal tuberculosis.
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.
Kwon
Chang-Il
CI
Department of Internal Medicine, Bundang CHA General Hospital, College of Medicine, Pochon CHA University, Seongnam, Korea.
Park
Pil Won
PW
Kang
Haeyoun
H
Kim
Gwang Il
GI
Cha
Sung Tae
ST
Kim
Kyung Soo
KS
Ko
Kwang Hyun
KH
Hong
Sung Pyo
SP
Hwang
Seong Gyu
SG
Rim
Kyu Sung
KS
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers; D003113:Colonoscopy; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000473:pathology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006099:Granuloma / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D007703:Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A / Q000378:metabolism*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014385:Tuberculosis, Gastrointestinal / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000473:pathology
D015415:Biomarkers; D007703:Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A