2000 Volume 56 Issue 2 Pages 60-61
A 53-year-old woman presented alopecia, nail changes and nonbloody diarrhea in April 1998. When the patient visited our medical center in June, alopecia had been improved. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy demonstrated multiple gastric polyps in the whole stomach and colonoscopy revealed polyposis from the cecum to rectum. Histologic examination of biopsy specimens from the polyps in the stomach and colon revealed hyperplastic changes of the gland, edema and inflammatory infiltration of neutrophiles, eosinocytes, etc. in the interstitium. On the basis of these findings, the patient was diagnosed as Cronkhite-Canada syndrome, but was not treated with steroids or antiplasmins because of improvement of alopecia and nail changes. Helicobacter pylori was found by culture and histological examination. The patient was treated with one week course of omeprazole, amoxicillin and clarithromycin. One year later, Helicobacter pylori was eradicated, and polyposis of the gastrointestinal tract almost disappeared. The patient has no recurrence of alopecia or nail changes.
