Severe muscle damage induced by high carbohydrate intake from elemental diet in a patient with Crohn's disease

Crohn's disease is associated with complications in multiple organs. However, there are very few reported cases of patients with Crohn's disease with muscle symptoms and/or high serum creatine phospho-kinase (CPK) levels. We report here a patient with Crohn's disease who experienced skeletal muscle damage with extremely high serum CPK level during treatment with an elemental diet. The non-parenteral administration of large amounts of carbohydrate and limited glycogen degradation capability may be a possible causative mechanism for this elemental diet-induced muscle damage.