Pulmonary abnormalities in Crohn's disease

The pulmonary associations of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are poorly characterized. The clinical, physiological and high-resolution computed tomographic thorax characteristics of the lung disease in patients with IBD presenting with respiratory symptoms are described.Detailed clinical information was obtained and standard pulmonary physiological tests and thorax high-resolution computed tomography performed on 14 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and three with Crohn's disease (CD), 10 male, aged 38±83 yrs.Respiratory symptoms had been present for 2±50 yrs and extraintestinal manifestations were present in three (17.6%). Normal pulmonary physiology (six patients) was associated with the high resolution computed tomographic changes of bronchiectasis, mosaic perfusion and air trapping suggestive of obliterative bronchiolitis and a pattern of centrilobular nodules and branching linear opacities ("tree in bud" appearance) suggestive of either cellular bronchiolitis or bronchiolectasis with mucoid secretions. Bronchiectasis was found in 13 patients (11 UC, 2 CD), 11 had air trapping and five had a "tree in bud" appearance on computed tomography. One patient had a predominantly peripheral reticular pattern at the lung bases similar to that found in cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis and one patient had a mixed reticular and groundglass pattern in the midzones with a patchy distribution in the central and peripheral portions of the lungs with air trapping. Eleven patients (three with alveolitis) exhibited a clinical and/or physiological response to steroids.Pulmonary abnormalities in ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease can present years after the onset of the bowel disease and can affect any part of the lungs. Early recognition is important as they can be strikingly steroid-responsive. Eur Respir J 2000; 15: 41±18. The presence of subclinical disease in patients without respiratory symptoms was suggested in one study because result of abnormal pulmonary function found in 38% of UC patients and 54% of CD patients, significantly greater pro-portions than in a healthy control populations [27].Pul-monary function abnormalities include a decrease in gas transfer factor [28±30], an elevated functional residual capacity (FRC) and raised residual volume (RV) during periods of active bowel disease [30±32] and an increased frequency of bronchial hyperresponsiveness [33]. Further-more, alveolar lymphocytosis is evident in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from CD patients without respiratory symptoms [34].The chest radiograph is often normal in patients with respiratory symptoms and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) [6,8] and as a result the radiological characteristics remain poorly characterized. Two studies described the high resolution computed tomographic findings in seven patients (in each study) with IBD who presented with cough and sputum production. However, these reports did not correlate the computed tomographic appearances with symptoms or pulmonary physiology or evaluate air trapping with scans performe...

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clinical and radiological characteristics of lung disease in inflammatory bowel disease

Mahadeva¹,

Walsh²,

Flower³

et al. 2000

“…Some authors found no difference in pulmonary function data in patients with inflammatory bowel disease and control groups [13,14]. HEATLEY et al [11] found abnormal lung function in about 50% of 102 patients with inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, in patients free of clinical pulmonary manifestations and abnormalities of pulmonary function tests, abnormal chest radiographs or bronchoalveolar lavages have been reported [8][9][10][11][12]. These observations, however, have not been confirmed by other investigators [13,14]. These discrepancies may be due to the fact that the above studies have included adult patients suffering from acute ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), which are clinically and histologically distinct.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Latent pulmonary function abnormalities in children with Crohn's disease

Munck

Murciano²,

Parienté³

et al. 1995

Recently, latent pulmonary involvement has been described in adult patients with inflammatory bowel disease. It is unknown, however, whether this also occurs in children, and whether the pulmonary abnormalities differ between the acute phase and remission. The incidence of pulmonary abnormalities has been investigated in 26 children with acute or quiescent Crohn's disease in terms of the following parameters: clinical pulmonary symptoms, chest roentgenograms and pulmonary function tests, including lung transfer factor for carbon monoxide (TLCO). One child had a severe digital clubbing. Chest radiographs were normal in all subjects. No significant differences were found between acute and quiescent phase for pulmonary volumes and expiratory flows, but TLCO (% predicted) was significantly decreased during the active phase of the disease as compared to remission (53 +/- 15 vs 81 +/- 19% predicted). These data suggest that latent pulmonary involvement is also present in a paediatric population with active Crohn's disease, despite a short disease history and absence of smoking. Although the nature of this abnormality remains unclear, this extradigestive epiphenomenon should be taken into account with respect to the aetiopathogenesis of Crohn's disease.

“…Abnormal lung function was found in 38% of patients with ulcerative colitis and in 54% with Crohn's disease despite normal chest X-rays and lack of pulmonary symptoms [10,11]. The pattern of ventilatory impairment was predominantly obstructive in ulcerative colitis and restrictive in Crohn's disease [10][11][12].…”

Section: Coursementioning

confidence: 99%

Severe inflammatory upper airway stenosis in ulcerative colitis

Rickli

Fretz²,

Hoffman³

et al. 1994

Severe upper airway stenosis was diagnosed in a 23 year old woman who presented with hoarseness, cough and dyspnoea 8 yrs after initial diagnosis of ulcerative colitis. The respiratory symptoms worsened over the next few months, the patient eventually developing dysphagia and ultimately severe upper airway obstruction. The narrowest site was the glottis, which was severely stenosed by inflammatory swellings. Systemic corticosteroids led to rapid clinical improvement and restoration of normal airway patency within a few months.Ulcerative colitis is frequently associated with extraintestinal inflammatory manifestations. In the respiratory tract these usually take the form of chronic bronchitis, which occasionally develops into bronchiectasis. This case confirms that the inflammation can also involve the larynx and large airways.