A variety of pitfalls exist in interpreting biopsies (and sometimes resections) from patients with ulcerative colitis. These include biopsies displaying an altered disease distribution pattern when colitis is modified by treatment or those obtained in patients with fulminant disease, and sometimes in untreated patients. Conversely, other inflammatory conditions (diverticular disease-associated colitis being a prototype) can occasionally display histologic features indistinguishable from idiopathic inflammatory disease, Most such traps are avoided by correlation with pertinent clinical data, as illustrated by this case
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