Crohn's disease in rheumatology clinic--an Indian experience

Prevalence of Crohn's disease (CD) among patients with rheumatic illnesses in India is grossly under estimated, especially when it has overtaken that of Ulcerative Colitis in the West.

To study the frequency of histologically unequivocal CD amongst clinically suspected patients with enteropathic arthropathy and to ascertain if the arthritics with CD have any independent clinical predictor.

Retrospective datasheet analysis from a Rheumatology clinic of a large tertiary care centre.

Patients of suspected enteropathic arthropathy were studied by ileocolonoscopy and segmental colonic biopsy for histological evidence of Crohn's disease and followed up.

Logistic regression analysis was done to find out any clinical predictor of histologically proven CD.

Fourteen of the twenty-nine patients studied had histologically confirmed CD. Those with CD were younger than those without (34.7 yr vs 41.6 yrs, p=0.057). The CD group also had significantly higher number of people with loss of weight (12 vs 1), fever (11 vs 0), perianal fistula (4 vs 0), abdominal pain (8 vs 2), history of dysentery (4 vs 0) and uveitis (6 vs 1) (p=0.00002, 0.00001, 0.026, 0.013, 0.026 & 0.01 respectively). However logistic regression analysis of the most relevant ones among these, namely, loss of weight, fever, and perianal fistula showed loss of weight as only independent predictor of CD in this subset of patients (p=0.03 with odds ratio of 28).

Presence of significant loss of weight in an Indian patient with clinically suspected enteropathic arthropathy is an independent predictor of CD.