Olmesartan: A Little-Known Cause of Diarrhoea

Authors

• Joana Serôdio Internal Medicine Department, Unidade Local de Saúde do Alto Minho, Portugal
• Joana Carneiro Internal Medicine Department, Unidade Local de Saúde do Alto Minho, Portugal
• Manuel Veiga Anatomical Pathology Department, Unidade Local de Saúde do Alto Minho, Portugal
• António Ferreira Internal Medicine Department, Unidade Local de Saúde do Alto Minho, Portugal

joana.g.serodio@gmail.com

Keywords

Abstract

Olmesartan's sprue-like enteropathy was first described in 2012 and typically presents with diarrhoea, weight loss, nausea, vomiting, low albumin and histological evidence of intestinal villous atrophy. Coeliac disease is one of the main differential diagnoses and should be excluded. We present the clinical case of a 63-year-old man treated with olmesartan for 10 years who presented with a 2-month history of diarrhoea and was diagnosed with olmesartan´s enteropathy. This case highlights the need for clinical suspicion of this new entity in order to reduce the associated morbidity and unnecessary costly investigations.