Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel diseases
Micrograph showing inflammation of the large bowel in a case of inflammatory bowel disease. Colonic biopsy. H&E stain.
Classification and external resources
Specialty	Gastroenterology
DiseasesDB	31127
eMedicine	med/1169 emerg/106 oph/520
MeSH	D015212
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Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of inflammatory conditions of the colon and small intestine. Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are the principal types of inflammatory bowel disease. It is important to note that not only does Crohn's disease affect the small intestine and large intestine, it can also affect the mouth, esophagus, stomach and the anus whereas ulcerative colitis primarily affects the colon and the rectum.

The chief types of inflammatory bowel disease are Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis (UC). Inflammatory bowel diseases fall into the class of autoimmune diseases, in which the body's own immune system attacks elements of the digestive system.

Accounting for fewer cases are other forms of IBD, which are not always classified as typical IBD:

No disease specific markers are currently known in the blood, enabling the reliable separation of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis patients. The way doctors can tell the difference between Crohn's disease and UC is the location and nature of the inflammatory changes. Crohn's can affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract, from mouth to anus (skip lesions), although a majority of the cases start in the terminal ileum. Ulcerative colitis, in contrast, is restricted to the colon and the rectum.Microscopically, ulcerative colitis is restricted to the mucosa (epithelial lining of the gut), while Crohn's disease affects the full thickness of the bowel wall ("transmural lesions"). Lastly, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis present with extra-intestinal manifestations (such as liver problems, arthritis, skin manifestations and eye problems) in different proportions.

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