Gastrointestinal Diseases at a Glance

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Spastic Colon

• What is IBD?
• About Crohn's Disease
• About Ulcerative Colitis
• Epidemiology of IBD
• Impact of the IBD as a Chronic Disease

What is IBD?

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) is a broad term that describes conditions with chronic or recurring immune response and inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. The two most common inflammatory bowel diseases are ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

Both illnesses have one strong feature in common. They are marked by an abnormal response by the body's immune system. Normally, the immune cells protect the body from infection. In people with IBD, however, the immune system mistakes food, bacteria, and other materials in the intestine for foreign substances and it attacks the cells of the intestines. In the process, the body sends white blood cells into the lining of the intestines where they produce chronic inflammation. When this happens, the patient experiences the symptoms of IBD.

Neither ulcerative colitis nor Crohn's disease should be confused with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a disorder that affects the motility (muscle contractions) of the colon. Sometimes called "spastic colon" or "nervous colitis," IBS is not characterized by intestinal inflammation. It is, therefore, a much less serious disease than ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. IBS bears no direct relationship to either ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease.

SOURCES:

CDC

Loftus EV. Clinical epidemiology of inflammatory bowel disease: Incidence, prevalence, and environmental influences. Gastro May 2004;126(6):1504–1517.

PL Lakatos. Recent trends in the epidemiology of inflammatory bowel diseases: Up or down? World J Gastroenterol 2006 October 14;12(38): 6102–6108.

S Hanauer. Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Epidemiology, pathogenesis and therapeutic opportunities. Inflamm Bowel Dis Jan 2006;12, Suppl 1.

Sleisenger & Fordtran's gastrointestinal and liver disease : pathophysiology, diagnosis, management / [edited by] Mark Feldman, Lawrence S. Friedman, Lawrence J. Brandt.—8th ed. Publisher Saunders an imprint of Elsevier, Philadelphia, PA . Printed in Canada 2006.