Incidence of Crohn's disease and CARD15 mutation in a small township in Sicily.

Background: The incidence of Crohn's disease (CD) has been shown to be lower in Southern than in Northern Europe. Data on the frequency of the NOD2/CARD15 mutations for Mediterranean area are very scant. Aim: To determine the incidence of CD from 1979 to 2002 in a township in Sicily together with the allele frequency of NOD2/CARD15 mutations in patients, family members and controls, and to determine the allele frequency of these mutations in sporadic CD from other areas of Sicily in comparison with a control population. Methods: Casteltermini is a small town close to Agrigento (Sicily) with a population of 9,130 inhabitants. All the diagnoses of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) made from 19…

The role of calprotectin in predicting endoscopic post-surgical recurrence in asymptomatic Crohn's disease: a comparison with ultrasound

The role of portal vein thrombosis in the clinical course of inflammatory bowel diseases: report on three cases and review of the literature.

Inflammatory bowel diseases are associated with an increased risk of vascular complications. The most important are arterial and venous thromboembolisms, which are considered as specific extraintestinal manifestations of inflammatory bowel diseases. Among venous thromboembolism events, portal vein thrombosis has been described in inflammatory bowel diseases. We report three cases of portal vein thrombosis occurring in patients with active inflammatory bowel disease. In two of them, hepatic abscess was present. Furthermore, we performed a systematic review based on the clinical literature published on this topic.