Frequency of extraintestinal manifestations in patients with inflammatory bowel disease in Northwest Greece and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease mainly affects the bowel but also has extraintestinal manifestations. AIMS: To report the frequency of extraintestinal manifestations in patients with inflammatory bowel disease in Northwest Greece. PATIENTS; The data files of 256 inflammatory bowel disease patients (diagnosis between 1983-19971 were analysed. METHODS: Retrospective investigation of patient files. RESULTS: In patients with ulcerative colitis: 13.9% (30/215) had developed skin manifestations, 6% (13/215) had kidney stones, 1.39% (3/215) had iridocyclitis, 1.86% (4/215) had primary sclerosing cholangitis, 4.18% (9/215) had sacroiliitis, 8.31% (18/215) had peripheral arthalgias, 2.3% (5/215) had colitic arthritis and finally 1.39% (3/215) had deep vein thrombosis). In patients with Crohn's disease: 24.3% (9/37) had developed skin manifestations, 5.4% (2/37) had kidney stones, 2.7% (1/37) had iridocyclitis, 16.2% (6/37) had sacroiliitis, 8.1% (3/37) had peripheral arthralgias, 5.4% (2/37) had colitic arthritis and, finally, 8.1% (3/37) had deep vein thrombosis. Sacroiliitis (p = 0.01), deep vein thrombosis (p = 0.04) and erythmema nodosum (p = 0.01) were more common in patients with Crohn's disease. CONCLUSIONS: Extraintestinal manifestations are not rare in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, especially in Crohn's disease patients, in our area, but have, generally, a mild profile.

Skin lesion's treatment with alfa interferon in a patient with B-CLL.

Treatment with recombinant alfa-2b-interferon in a patient with advanced B-CLL resulting in complete remission of skin lesions after one month therapy is reported in this paper. Interferon was administered subcutaneously three times weekly. Six months later while the treatment continued, the disease remained stable.

Immune thrombocytopenia attributed to brucellosis and other mechanisms of Brucella-induced thrombocytopenia.

Thrombocytopenia often complicates the course of acute brucellosis, mainly due to bone marrow suppression or hypersplenism. Immune thrombocytopenia is also reported in brucellosis, resulting usually in massive thrombocytopenia, purpura, and spontaneous hemorrhage. We describe a case of acute brucellosis in an 85-year old woman, who presented with fever, purpuric skin lesions, anemia, and rhinorrhagia. The absolute platelet count was 1000/microL. Direct and indirect Coombs tests were positive, and a cold-agglutinin was detected. The patient was diagnosed as suffering from brucellosis on the basis of a strongly positive serologic reaction and was treated with doxycycline, streptomycin, and a short course of corticosteroids, with a rapid rise in platelet number.

Extensive lymphadenopathy as the first clinical manifestation in systemic lupus erythematosus.

Lymphadenopathy (LAP) is a frequent sign of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The lymph nodes are usually soft, nontender, varying in size from 0.5 cm to several centimeters. However, generalized LAP in SLE is extremely rare, while to our knowledge, the presentation of extensive LAP with blocks of retrosternal, mesenteric, and retroperitoneal nodes has not been previously reported as the first clinical manifestation of the disease. In this report we describe a patient with extensive LAP and active SLE and we point out that generalized LAP should be included among the clinical findings indicating disease activity in SLE patients.