Subject: Re: Connective Tissue Disease and Crohn's Disease
From: sbehar at aol.com (SBehar)
Date: 13 Jan 1995 23:41:07 -0500
Message-ID: <3f7kl3$c5k at newsbf02.news.aol.com>
>I would really appreciate it if you could tell me the details on a
>connection between a connective tissue disease (such as SLE) and >Crohn's
disease. Are there rheumatological manifestations of Crohn's? Are
>there any neurological manifestations?
thank you very much please respond it's very important.
>I have not heard of any relation between CTD and Crohn's disease. There
>are several rheumatological manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease.
>There is both a peripheral arthritis and a spondyloarthropathy that is
>associated with IBD.
Several forms of arthritis are associated with Crohn's disease:-
peripheral:- abrupt onset, large joints, non-deforming and seronegative.
no relationship with severity of crohn's but frequent correlation with
activity of disease
ankylosing sponyloarthropathy:- chronic and progressive
granulomatous arthritis:- crohn's involving joint (rare)
there is not clearcut evidence of any relationship between rheumatoid
arthritis and crohn's.
Few questionable reports of crohn's and SLE in the same patient; if there
is an association it is very rare.
However, many SLE patients have symptoms involving the gastrointestinal
tract possibly related to vasculitis.
It is important to mention in this context that SLE can be induced by
medication. In the context of Crohn's numerous reports have implicated
sulfasalazine as a possible cause of an SLE like syndrome. This may occur
up to six months following initiation of treatment.
There are a few reports of neurologic complications of crohns probably
related to vasculitis. They are very rare.
Kevin Horgan
Division of Digestive Diseases
UCLA School of Medicine
khorgan at medicine.medsch.ucla.edu
