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Microvillous atrophy

Microvillous atrophy, also known as microvillous inclusion disease,^[1] is a rare disorder of the small intestine that causes chronic and severe watery intractable diarrhoea in new-born infants, starting in the first few days of life.^[2] It is nearly always fatal unless treated with parenteral nutrition or an intestinal transplant.^[2] It is caused by a congenital lack of apical microvilli in the epithelial cells of the small intestine.^[3] It cannot be diagnosed in utero; diagnosis requires a biopsy of sections of the intestine.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b Chehade, Mirna & Sicherer, Scott H (2005), , in David, Timothy J, , London: Royal Society of Medicine Press, pp. 140, ISBN 1853155721,
^ ^a ^b Salvatore, S.; Hauser, B. & Vandenplas, Y. (2007), , in Cooke, Richard J.; Vandenplas, Yvan & Wahn, Ulrich, , Basel, Switzerland; New York: Karger, pp. 123, ISBN 3805581947,
^ Arpin, M.; Crepaldi, T. & Louvard, D. (1999), , in Birchmeier, Walter & Birchmeier, Carmen, , Amsterdam: Harwood Academic, pp. 104, ISBN 9057024195,