Case of Cronkhite-Canada Syndrome: Remission after Treatment with Anti-Helicobacter pylori Regimen

A 67-year-old man with nausea, appetite loss, frequent diarrhea and severe weight loss presented with alopecia, skin hyperpigmentation and onychodystrophy. Laboratory investigations showed mild anemia, hypoproteinemia and hypo albuminemia. Colonoscopy identified the numerous, hyperemic and sessile polyps with mucous exudation of various sizes throughout the colorectum. The ileocecal valve was substantially swollen. Magnified chromoendoscopy revealed sparsely distributed crypt openings with widening of the preicryptal space without destruction in the affected lesions. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed multiple small, reddish, and sessile polyps in the duodenum and Helicobacter pylori-associated gastritis. Histopathological examination of the colonic polyps revealed cystic dilatation and elongation of scattered glands with epithelial hyperplasia and stromal edema and inflammatory cell infiltrates. Thus, a diagnosis of Cronkhite-Canada syndrome was made. The patient was given clarithromycin, amoxicillin and lansoprazole, resulting in negative C-13-urea breath tests. Three months later, his clinical symptoms and edema of the legs resolved with normalization of serum total protein and albumin levels and return to his previous body. The ectodermal abnormalities were resolved 8 months later. On repeat colonoscopic examinations, there was progressive remission of the duodenal and colorectal polyposis, leaving scattered pedunculated polyps in the transverse and ascending colon and on the almost normal-appearing ileocecal valve. At the follow-up magnifying endoscopic examination 8 months later, small round or round-oval pits were densely and regularly distributed. Copyright (c) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel