In vivo diagnosis of lymphocytic colitis by confocal laser endomicroscopy

We read with interest the paper by Moussata et al and the GI snapshot by Neufert et al , published in recent issues of Gut .1 ,2 The authors described in these outstanding articles the potential of confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) to either image intramucosal bacteria in vivo in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases and also to visualise disease specific findings (‘foamy macrophages’) in a patient with Mycobacterium avium intracellulare infection. CLE was recently introduced as a new emerging endoscopic imaging modality which due to its inherent capability of providing in vivo images of microscopic tissue changes at 1000-fold …