Association of Crohn's ileitis with pulmonary and cutaneous sarcoidosis in a Japanese patient

Interstitial and Granulomatous Lung Disease in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients

BACKGROUND

Interstitial lung [ILD] disease and granulomatous lung disease [GLD] are rare respiratory disorders that have been associated with inflammatory bowel disease [IBD]. Clinical presentation is polymorphic and aetiology is unclear.

METHODS

This was an ECCO-CONFER project. Cases of concomitant ILD or GLD and IBD, or drug-induced ILD/GLD, were collected. The criteria for diagnosing ILD and GLD were based on definitions from the American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society and on the discretion of reporting clinician.

RESULTS

We identified 31 patients with ILD. The majority had ulcerative colitis [UC] [n = 22]. Drug-related ILD was found in 64% of these patients, 25 patients [80.6%] required hospitalisation, and one required non-invasive ventilation. The causative drug was stopped in all drug-related ILD, and 87% of patients received systemic steroids. At follow-up, 16% of patients had no respiratory symptoms, 16% had partial improvement, 55% had ongoing symptoms, and there were no data in 13%. One patient was referred for lung transplantation, and one death from lung fibrosis was reported. We also identified 22 GLD patients: most had Crohn's disease [CD] [n = 17]. Drug-related GLD was found in 36% of patients and 10 patients [45.4%] required hospitalisation. The causative drug was stopped in all drug-related GLD, and 81% of patients received systemic steroids. Remission of both conditions was achieved in almost all patients.

CONCLUSIONS

ILD and GLD, although rare, can cause significant morbidity. In our series, over half of cases were drug-related and therefore focused pharmacovigilance is needed to identify and manage these cases.

Digestive-tract sarcoidosis: French nationwide case-control study of 25 cases

Digestive tract sarcoidosis (DTS) is rare and case-series are lacking. In this retrospective case-control study, we aimed to compare the characteristics, outcome, and treatment of patients with DTS, nondigestive tract sarcoidosis (NDTS), and Crohn disease.We included cases of confirmed sarcoidosis, symptomatic digestive tract involvement, and noncaseating granuloma in any digestive tract. Each case was compared with 2 controls with sarcoidoisis without digestive tract involvement and 4 with Crohn disease.We compared 25 cases of DTS to 50 controls with NDTS and 100 controls with Crohn disease. The major digestive clinical features were abdominal pain (56%), weight loss (52%), nausea/vomiting (48%), diarrhea (32%), and digestive bleeding (28%). On endoscopy of DTS, macroscopic lesions were observed in the esophagus (9%), stomach (78%), duodenum (9%), colon, (25%) and rectum (19%). As compared with NDTS, DTS was associated with weight loss (odds ratio [OR] 5.8; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.44-23.3) and the absence of thoracic adenopathy (OR 5.0; 95% CI 1.03-25). As compared with Crohn disease, DTS was associated with Afro-Caribbean origin (OR 27; 95% CI 3.6-204) and the absence of ileum or colon macroscopic lesions (OR 62.5; 95% CI 10.3-500). On the last follow-up, patients with DTS showed no need for surgery (versus 31% for patients with Crohn disease; P = 0.0013), and clinical digestive remission was frequent (76% vs. 35% for patients with Crohn disease; P = 0.0002).The differential diagnosis with Crohn disease could be an issue with DTS. Nevertheless, the 2 diseases often have different clinical presentation and outcome.

[Neurological complications of inflammatory bowel disease]

Although ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease have traditionally been considered to be inflammatory diseases limited to the gastrointestinal tract, it has been shown that both pathologies are frequently accompanied by various extraintestinal disorders. There is an increasing evidence that they may also manifest in the nervous system, including the peripheral and the central parts. Although some of these neurological complications have been known for a long time, such as cerebrovascular disease, vasculitis and autoinmune processes including neuropathies and cerebral demyelination, others have been recently described. With the exception of some of this complications such as the thromboembolism, evidence for a casual relationship relies merely on single case reports or case series. In this article, we try to review the existing evidence on neurological manifestations of both variants of inflammatory bowel disease.

Granulomatous pulmonary disease in a child: an unusual presentation of Crohn's disease

Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the bowel which may be associated with an extensive list of extraintestinal manifestations involving almost every organ system. The most common organs involved are the eyes, skin, joints, and liver. Symptomatic bronchopulmonary disorders have been reported only rarely in pediatric CD. We report on an 11-year-old child who had a recurrent cough and increasing dyspnea with exercise for 8 months before developing any gastrointestinal symptoms. He was demonstrated to have granulomatous inflammation of the lung, as well as of the gastrointestinal tract. Similarities between CD and sarcoidosis are discussed.

Pulmonary manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease

Extraintestinal manifestations of both Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis (UC) have been well described, although pulmonary findings are often overlooked. We summarize the experience of more than 400 cases of pulmonary manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). These manifestations will be categorized by disease mechanism into drug-induced disease, anatomic disease, over-lap syndromes, autoimmune disease, physiologic consequences of IBD, pulmonary function test abnormalities, and nonspecific lung disease. We intend to provide the clinician with a practical working update on the spectrum of pulmonary dysfunction associated with IBD.