[Quantitative investigations of the structure and function of the intestinal mucosa in endoscopically obtained biopsy material. Findings in patients with coeliac disease, patients with partially resected small intestine in Crohn's disease and in patients with small intestine resection for other reasons (author's transl)].

During an endoscopy of the upper gastrointestinal tract, biopsy material of the small intestine was obtained and structure and function of the small intestinal mucosa was investigated. The data were then compared with published results, gained by normally performed blind biopsy techniques. For that the findings of three groups of patients (1. patients with coeliac disease [9], 2, patients with ileal resection due to ileitis terminalis Crohn [9], 3. patients with partially resection of the small intestine due to other reasons [4]) were compared with healthy controls (10). The results indicate that obtaining small intestinal biopsy material endoscopically enables a valid characterization of differentiated properties of the small bowel mucosa. The data of the patients with coeliac disease are in complete agreement with the criteria of this syndrome, published in the literature. On the other hand the results of the group with partial resection of the small intestine resection (without chronic inflammatory bowel disease) show all signs of adaptive mucosal hyperplasia of the remaining small intestine. However, patients with Crohn's disease did not show any adaptive response to small bowel resection.