Gastrointestinal manifestations in systemic autoimmune diseases

In an autoimmune disease, the immune system attacks and harms the body's own tissues. The systemic autoimmune diseases include collagen vascular diseases, the systemic vasculitides, Wegener granulomatosis, and Churg-Strauss syndrome. These disorders can involve any part of the gastrointestinal tract, hepatobiliary system and pancreas. They can cause a variety of gastrointestinal manifestations that are influenced by the pathophysiologic characteristics of the underlying disease process. There is a wide variation of gastrointestinal manifestations from these autoimmune disorders including, but not limited to: oral ulcers, dysphagia, gastroesophageal reflux disease, abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, fecal incontinence, pseudo-obstruction, perforation and gastrointestinal bleeding. Clinical workup should be initiated by the patient's subjective complaints. In this review, we analyze the effects of autoimmune diseases on the gastrointestinal tract.