Protein patterns in serum and peritoneal fluid in Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

The protein content in serum and peritoneal fluid has been determined and analysed electrophoretically in patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis and the data obtained compared with previously published data on serum and ascites content in liver cirrhosis, heart failure and intestinal tuberculosis. Ascites fluid in liver cirrhosis and heart failure, representing a true transudate, had a comparatively low protein content while the ascites fluid in inflammatory bowel diseases including Crohn's disease had high protein content. There was no difference in ascites protein content or ascites/serum protein ratio between patients with Crohn's disease and patients with ulcerative colitis. An exudative nature of both these inflammatory bowel conditions appears to be the main cause to the peritoneal fluid often observed at laparotomy. It cannot be excluded, however, that a lymphatic stasis, which is thought to be involved in Crohn's disease, might at least partly contribute to the development when larger quantities of ascitic fluid are at hand in this disease.