Clinicopathologic consideration of protein-losing enteropathy due to lymphangiectasia of the intestine.

The pathogenesis of intestinal lymphangiectasia and mechanism of enteric loss of serum protein has been discussed from the pathologic and roentgenologic viewpoints of the two patients with this disease. Enteric loss of serum protein was attributed to exudation of lymph from ruptured lymphatic vessels, resulting from non-specific multiple ulcers of the small intestine in one patient and malrotation of the gut in another.