[Is the lung a target organ in inflammatory bowel disease?]

Inflammatory bowel disease is a systemic illness that may involve the lung. The most common manifestation of pulmonary involvement is an asymptomatic reduction in lung transfer factor for carbon monoxide (Dlco) and a small airway disorders easy to find in subjects with active disease. Some patients show a bronchial inflammation and suppuration with or without bronchiectasis poorly responsive to antibiotics but responding dramatically to inhaled steroids. Others present a severe tracheal inflammation and obstruction with an inflammatory mass bulging into the tracheal lumen, these subjects usually respond to methylprednisolone, in rare cases an emergency laser ablation may be necessary. Interstitial lung disease and pulmonary infiltrate with eosinophilia are the most difficult patterns to address because in some cases drugs such as sulfasalazina and 5-aminosalicylate may play a contributing role.