Crohn's disease can reach from the mouth to the eyes and kidneys
Crohn's disease is usually pictured as a gut disorder, but its inflammation can travel. Chemical signals made in the bowel reach the eyes, bile problems raise the odds of gallstones, and children may stop growing. Its name is also disputed: two colleagues argued they studied it before Crohn did.
Crohn's is a form of inflammatory bowel disease that can strike anywhere along the digestive tract, most often the end of the small intestine and the colon. Typical signs are abdominal pain, often low on the right, diarrhoea, fever, bloating and weight loss, in cycles of flare-ups and remission. Many people have symptoms for years before diagnosis, and onset usually comes in the teens or twenties, affecting men and women about equally.
The causes are not settled. The leading idea is a mix of environment, immune response and gut bacteria acting on genetically susceptible people. About half the risk is genetic, involving more than 70 genes, and smokers are three times as likely to develop it. It often follows a bout of gastroenteritis. Oddly, it does not appear to be autoimmune; the immune system may instead be reacting to microbes, and some researchers suspect an underlying immune deficiency.
Effects beyond the gut are wide. Uveitis inflames the inner eye and can threaten sight, a link tied to certain genetic markers and to cytokines such as IL-6 travelling from the bowel. Disease in the ileum reduces reabsorption of bile acids, tipping the gallbladder toward stones, and fat left unabsorbed in the colon lets extra oxalate through, feeding kidney stones. Up to 30 percent of affected children may show slowed growth, sometimes the first clue.
In Europe and North America roughly 3.2 of every 1,000 people live with it, and rates have climbed since the 1970s, especially in developing countries. There is no cure; treatment aims to calm symptoms and prevent relapse, and half of patients need surgery within ten years. The name honours Burrill Bernard Crohn, who with Leon Ginzburg and Gordon D. Oppenheimer described cases at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York in 1932, though others had described the disease earlier and Ginzburg made a strong case for priority.
Source: Crohn's disease
