Crohn's disease in a married couple.

The aetiopathogenesis of Crohn's disease is still unknown. Multiple occurrence of inflammatory bowel disease among blood relatives of patients with either Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis is seen much more frequently than would be expected by chance alone, whereas reports on the development of these diseases in spouses are very rare. We describe such a case here, and suggest that chance, rather than an infectious agent, is behind such occurrences.