Macroscopic and microscopic gut lesions in seronegative spondyloarthropathies

A retrospective study by ileocolonoscopy and multiple biopsies was performed on 96 patients with seronegative spondylarthropathy, 17 patients with osteoarthritis (OA) and 19 patients with chronic abdominal discomfort. Under these conditions, inflammatory gut lesions were detected in 66.7% of the patients with spondyloarthropathy, 12.5% with OA and 15.8% with chronic abdominal discomfort. In 10 patients treated by sulfasalazine (Salazopyrine), pathologic lesions disappeared simultaneously with an improvement of the rheumatic conditions. comparison between patients treated and untreated with nonsteroidal inflammatory drugs (NSAID) demonstrated that NSAID did not enter into the etiopathology of the intestinal lesions. Our study therefore confirms the high incidence of inflammatory gut lesions among patients with spondylarthropathy which seems not to be related to NSAID therapy.