STUDIES ON CROHN'S DISEASE INITIALLY DIAGNOSED BY MULTIPLE MINUTE ULCERS OF THE COLON

Abstract

Six patients with Crohn's disease initially diagnosed by colonic small and/or aphthoid ulcers were studied by X-ray and endoscopic examinations concerning the alteration of these lesions. Multiple small and/or aphthoid ulcers were disappeared with medical treatment in 4 out of 6 patients and those changed to localized cobble stone appearance in one patient and a characteristic cobble stone appearance was noted in the last case who did not have medical treatment. In those with colonic multiple small and/or aphthoid ulcers, extraintestinal signs such as aphthous stomatitis, arthralgia, erythema nodosum and fever were frequently encountered. It is consequently considered that the development of multiple colonic aphthoid ulcers is one of the signs of systemic manifestation of Crohn's disease.