Thymoma-associated autoimmune enteropathy. A report of two cases.

Abstract

Autoimmune enteropathy is an increasingly recognized cause of severe protracted diarrhea, usually affecting infants and children predisposed to autoimmune phenomena. Although this may be a common cause of diarrheal illness, it is scarcely recognized in the American literature. In association with thymoma, a case of so-called graft-vs-host-like colitis and 2 cases of chronic diarrhea associated with thymoma were reported, but, to our knowledge, no cases of autoimmune enteropathy have been reported as such. We describe 2 adults with autoimmune enteropathy found in association with a thymoma.