Protein-losing enteropathy is a rare but life-threatening complication that occurs in some patients who develop intestinal lymphangiectasis secondary to increased systemic venous pressure. Although different forms of treatment have been tried, with varying results, the majority were reported to be unsuccessful. The aim of this study was to demonstrate that heart transplantation may be an approp...

Protein losing enteropathy (PLE) is the massive enteric loss of serum protein. PLE may appear in several diseases associated with intestinal mucous membrane damages with or without infection. PLE is mostly associated with total cavopulmonary connection (TCPC) or Fontan-type circulation in patients with a functionally univentricular heart. TCPC is performed at an age of about 2 years or older an...

Noonan syndrome is characterized by facial dysmorphology, congenital heart disease and growth failure. Although it is also accompanied by deranged lymph-vessel formation, protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) with Noonan syndrome is rarely reported. We report clinical information about a boy with Noonan syndrome and late-onset lymphedema and PLE after standing for long periods of time during athleti...

Primary intestinal lymphangiectasia (PIL), also known as Waldmann's disease, is an exudative enteropathy resulting from morphologic abnormalities in the intestinal lymphatics. In this article, we describe a 12-year-old boy with PIL that led to protein-losing enteropathy characterized by diarrhea, hypoalbuminemia associated with edema (serum albumin level: 1.0 g/dL), and hypogammaglobulinemia (s...

Amyloidosis of the gastrointestinal tract is usually a systemic disease. Localized gastrointestinal amyloidosis without evidence of extraintestinal involvement or an associated plasma cell dyscrasia is uncommon and does not usually cause death. We report a case of a patient with localized gastrointestinal amyloidosis who presented with protein-losing enteropathy and a fatal upper gastrointestin...

Primary Intestinal Lymphangiectasia (PIL) is a rare idiopathic congenital disorder characterized by impaired lymphatic drainage and protein-losing enteropathy [1,2]. PIL normally presents in childhood but can unusually present in adults [2]. We report a case of PIL diagnosed at antegrade double-balloon enteroscopy in a middle-aged man with isolated intermittent ankle edema and hypoalbuminemia.

High levels of faecal alpha-1-antitrypsin were found in children suffering from acute rotavirus diarrhoea and in children with diarrhoea in whom no microbial pathogen could be established. The results suggest that transient protein-losing enteropathy is common in acute childhood diarrhoea and may influence the outcome of the disease.