Small bowel ulcers and hypoproteinemia, differential diagnosis beyond inflamatory bowel disease.

Abstract

Protein-losing enteropathy is a relatively uncommon syndrome characterized by excessive loss of proteins into the intestinal lumen. It can be caused by various etiologies. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is the first condition we think of when we meet a patient with intestinal ulcers and hypoproteinemia. However, there are many other complicated and relatively novel etiologies, which we must be aware of in order to perform an appropriate differential diagnosis, such as the one we present.