Systematic ileocolonoscopy and bowel biopsy study in spondylarthropathy.

In order to evaluate the frequency of ileitis in a population of patients with spondylarthropathy, an ileocolonoscopy with biopsies was performed in 88 consecutive patients with back pain and/or asymmetric oligoarthritis. Ileitis was more frequent in both the oligoarthritis group (7/36), especially in the non-Reiter's subgroup without known distant infection (5/17), and in the spondylitis group (12/28), when compared to the control group (1/24). This was statistically significant only in the latter group (chi squared 10.317, df1, p less than 0.005). These results do not confirm the very high frequency of ileitis in oligoarthritis reported by others. The clinical significance of this ileitis needs further research.