Case Sensitive Confirmation of Endoscopic Findings in Viral Gastroenteritis

Background/Aim: An increasing awareness of the etiology of sporadic and outbreak cases of viral gastroenteritis has transformed the traditional dichotomous view that, Norovirus causes epidemic viral gastroenteritis in older children and adults whereas Rotavirus causes diarrhea in infants and young children. We previously reported that 14.3% of adult diarrhea was caused by group A Rotavirus infection (Lancet, 357, 9272, 2001). Thereafter other viruses such as Astrovirus, Adenovirus, Norovirus, and Enterovirus have turned out to be also responsible for gastroenteritis and endoscopic examination has increased gradually. We already presented preliminary data referring to Rotavirus infection in ischemic colitis (GIE vol. 55. No.5. AB265, 2002). We aim to study the general endoscopic aspect of viral gastroenteritis in this paper under the hypothesis the other viruses also might be linked to mucosal changes.