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RESEARCH PRODUCT

ARTHRITIS AND CROHN'S DISEASE: OUR EXPERIENCE

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Introduction: Crohn's disease (CD) is a form of inflammatory bowel disease, which may affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anus, causing a wide variety of symptoms. The arthritis is counted as the worst side effect of CD. The orthopaedic manifestations of CD are: peripheral arthritis, spondylitis, sacroiliitis. Material and Method: The authors evaluated the orthopedic clinical manifestation in Sicilian group of forty-five patients with Crohn's disease. Every patients are analyzed with clinical exams, laboratory data, radiographic exams. In addition, all patients were screened for the presence of the antigen HLA B27. Result: Arthritis occurred in 8 patients (17,7 %). Patients with arthritis had more active inflammation and all were sieronegative. The patients with arthritis were classified into the categories used by Gravallese and Kantrowitz for IBD: peripheral arthritis, spondylitis, sacroiliitis Peripheral arthritis was found 7 patients (87,5%); spondylitis was diagnosed in 1 patients (12,2%); sacroiliac joint abnormality was observed in 1 patients (12,2%) who had peripheral arthritis. Conclusion: the extent of the intestinal lesion in ulcerative colitis seems to be important in the expression of the articular complications.The association between CD and Arthritis is clear reported in the literature and in our study, but the basis of this association is unknown.