Rheumatoid Arthritis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Rheumatoid Arthritis, including details on treatment, symptoms, causes, medication.

Extraintestinal manifestations of Crohn's disease.

Juillerat P, Mottet C, Froehlich F, Felley C, Vader JP, Burnand B, Gonvers JJ, Michetti P

Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Lausanne University Medical Center, Lausanne, Switzerland.

In each case of extraintestinal manifestations of Crohn's disease, active disease, if present, should be treated to induce remission, which may positively influence the course of most concomitant extraintestinal manifestations. For some extraintestinal manifestations, however, a specific treatment should be introduced. This latter part of disease management will be discussed in this chapter, in particular for pyoderma gangrenosum, uveitis, spondylarthropathy--axial arthropathy--and primarysclerosing cholangitis, which have also been described in quiescent Crohn's disease. Few new drugs for the treatment of extraintestinal manifestations of Crohn's disease have been developed in the past and only the role of infliximab has increased in Crohn's disease-related extraintestinal manifestations. Drugs specifically aimed at this treatment, stemming from a few randomized controlled studies or case series, are sulfasalazine, 5-ASA, corticosteroids, azathioprine or 6-mercaptopurine, methotrexate, infliximab, dapsone and cyclosporine or tacrolimus.

Published 6 April 2005 in Digestion, 71(1): 31-6.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Rheumatoid Arthritis Research Today. All Rights Reserved.