[Articular and extraarticular involvement in inflammatory bowel diseases].

Idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease include basically two disorders: ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Both diseases are chronic and of unknown etiology and extraintestinal manifestations are seen in a high number of these patients. We studied 18 patients (7 female, 11 male) with previous diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease (14 ulcerative colitis, 2 Crohn's disease, 1 pancolitis, 1 ulcerative proctitis) in order to search for extraintestinal manifestations with emphasis on osteoarticular and ocular involvement. The mean age at the time of diagnosis of the inflammatory bowel disease was 44 years (range 20 to 71 years). Mean time duration of the inflammatory bowel disease was 7 years (range 1 to 24 years) and of the articular manifestations 3.2 years (range 1 to 8 years). The osteoarticular manifestations developed after the diagnosis of the bowel disease in all but one patient (simultaneously) 17/18 patients had artralgias, 7/18 lumbalgia, 3/18 talalgia, 1/18 knee arthritis. (table I) Only six of the 17 patients with orteoarticular involvement has simultaneous activity of the underlying bowel disease. All the 18 patients were taking 2 g/day of sulfasalazine. Radiographic screening in all patients revealed sacroiliitis in 10. (table II) Of the 10 radiographic sacroiliitis 4 were grade I (confirmed by technetium phosphate scans, 2 were grade II and 4 grade III-IV. Three of the ten patients with radiographic sacroiliitis were asymptomatic (table II). Axial computed tomography was performed done in two patients: a) in one case to exclude osteitis condensens ilii, and b) in the other case to exclude septic arthritis. The severity of the sacroiliac damage was related with a longer duration of the inflammatory bowel disease.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)