[Rheumatic manifestations in 80 cases of Crohn's disease].

Out of a series of 80 patients suffering from Crohn's disease, 31 presented rheumatic manifestations. In 16 subjects this took the form of synovitis closely dependent on the enteritic evolution, which developed after the alimentary symptoms, and which worsened as they did and sometimes regressed as they did following medical or surgical treatment. In combination with erythema nodosum, aphtosis, and conjunctivitis, synovitis appears to be the expression of an immune response to the enteritic lesion. Three cases of chronic polyarthitis and 6 cases of asymptomatic sacro-ileitis were also observed, and 6 cases of spondylarthritis of a minor radiological type were observed that evolved independently of the Crohn's disease. Typing according to the HLA system using 26 antigens was carried out in 44 subjects; no difference in phenotype frequency was found between a control group (blood donors) and the group of subjects with Crohn's disease alone; however, the antigen W 17 was found significantly more frequently in those subjects with peripheral arthritis and the antigen W 27 was found more frequently in those with spondylarthritis. These findings suggest, although it is not certain, the existence of genetic susceptibility to rheumatic manifestations in certain sites in patients with Crohn's disease.