Arthritis, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, and Histocompatibility Antigens

Excerpt

Arthritis and chronic inflammatory bowel disease may coexist in the same patient much more often than could be expected by chance alone. The arthritis seen is of two readily distinguishable types: a migratory peripheral synovitis associated with clinically active bowel disease, and an axial arthropathy generally indistinguishable from sporadic ankylosing spondylitis (1, 2). The synovitis usually reflects active bowel disease and may be relieved, for example, by a total colectomy for ulcerative colitis, but the spondylitis is not related to the extent or severity of the intestinal disease and frequently antedates it. Histocompatibility testing on these patients has improved our