Articular involvement in inflammatory bowel disease – the most frequent extraintestinal manifestation

Objectives. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are part of a pathology that has an ascending incidence both in Romania and around the world. It is well known that intestinal inflammation in IBD is not limited to the intestinal epithelium. Sometimes, extraintestinal manifestations (EIM) may have a more severe clinical expression than the intestinal disorder or may even encourage an increased morbidity. The research motivation focused on the development of specific clinical and epidemiological data for patients diagnosed with IBD who associate EIM. Material and methods. We performed a retrospective study including 517 patients with intestinal inflammation (Crohn disease CD, ulcerative colitis UC or undifferentiated colitis NC) diagnosed during 1975-2016 in the N-E region of Romania. All the cases were extracted from the national database (IBD Prospect). Results. In our study the prevalence of UC versus CD cases prevailed. There were 368 cases (71.2%) of UC, 135 cases (26.1%) of CD and 10 cases of NC (1.9%). The prevalence of EIM in IBD patients in N-E Romania was 9,9% which was quite low. In the study group, EIMs occurred with a higher frequency in patients diagnosed with CD compared to UC. Thus, of the 51 cases of IBD and EIM, 27 (52.9%) belonged to the CD’s phenotype and 24 cases (47.1%) of the UC’s phenotype. Discussions. Both patients with CD and UC experienced a greater risk than the rest of patients for developing EIM. The most frequent EIMs were highlighted at the level of musculoskeletal system. Among EIM, there were 38 cases (74,5%) with articular manifestations (of which 26 had peripheral manifestations arthritis, 12 cases developed axial manifestations – sacroiliitis/ankylosing spondylitis SI/AS). Also, cases with multiple EIM had at least one articular manifestation. Conclusions. Our results sustain, once again, the fact that inflammation in IBD is not limited at the level of gastrointestinal tract. The presence of EIM, especially joint involvement, is a certainty validated by the results of many clinical trials.