[Psoriasis and inflammatory bowel diseases]

Manifestation of Crohn's disease in a young woman during the course of treatment for severe form of chronic plaque psoriasis with etanercept

With the growing number of patients with immune-modulated diseases treated with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha inhibitors, we are more frequently encountering the occurrence of so-called paradoxical drug reactions. These are basically situations where during the course of the treatment of one disease, the manifestation of another with similar etiopathogenesis occurs, although under normal conditions this newly developed disease responds well to treatment with TNF alpha inhibitors and is indicated for this treatment. Skin reactions are most frequently recorded in the form of induced psoriasis and psoriasiform exanthems. A less common paradoxical reaction is the induction of Crohn's disease, which is most often described in association with the treatment of inflammatory joint diseases with etanercept. We present a case of induction of Crohn's disease during therapy with etanercept, where the primary disease being treated was psoriasis. In the literature, similar cases have only been described sporadically.

A systematic review of SAPHO syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease association

BACKGROUND

The association between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and synovitis, acne, pustulosis, hyperostosis, osteitis syndrome (SAPHO syndrome) was first reported in 1992. To date, only case reports and short series have been published.

AIMS

The purpose of this study was to report new cases and systematically review the literature on this association.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

All patients with concomitant diagnosis of SAPHO syndrome and IBD were identified from the databases of the rheumatology and gastroenterology departments of our institution. In addition, we systematically searched for published full articles in Medlars Online International Literature via PubMed. Relevant information of each positive match was collected and all authors were contacted for additional clinical data.

RESULTS

Three patients sharing both SAPHO syndrome and IBD were identified among the 62 patients with SAPHO syndrome (4.8 % of the SAPHO cohort) and the 1,309 patients with IBD (0.2 % of the IBD cohort) from our hospital database. After a systematic review, a total of 39 reported patients with concomitant diagnosis of SAPHO syndrome and IBD were identified. There was a female predominance and most had Crohn's disease with colonic involvement.

CONCLUSIONS

The association of SAPHO syndrome and IBD seems to be rare among IBD patients but not so among SAPHO patients. SAPHO could be underdiagnosed because of the similarity of its clinical manifestations and some more common extraintestinal manifestations or drug-related side effects in IBD.