Different Categories of Crohn's Disease

Interestingly I stumbled on a website that contained alot of really interesting information about Crohn's Disease. A lot of the material was, more or less, a review of things that we have seen in the various papers we have read; however, I did find a couple of interesting things that we have not really talked about. The first is different categories of Crohn's. The following table was taken from the website Crohns.net and lays out various forms of the disease mostly based on the origin of the symptoms.

Subcategory	Area Affected
Ileocolitis	The most common form of Crohn's Disease, affecting the ileum and colon
Ileitis	Affects only the ileum; fistulas or inflammatory abscesses possible
Gastroduodenal Crohn's Disease	Affects the stomach and duodenum; bowel obstruction possible
Jejunoileitis	Patchy areas of inflammation in the jejunum; fistulas possible
Crohn's (Granulomatous) Colitis	Affects only the colon and anus; anal fistulas, abscesses, and ulcers possible

Adapted from Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, Inc. 2004
http://www.ccfa.org/research/info/aboutch

There is also some interesting information about diseases that can arise from Crohn's. Of these one of the most common is osteoporosis. This comes about for two reasons; the first is a lack of nutritional absorption of vitamins d and k and the second is the treatment of the disease with corticosteroids. Both of these lead to decreased bone density and thus the condition of osteoporosis. Some other major medical problems that could occur either as a result of the different therapies or the disease state itself are colorectal cancer, infertility, bacterial infections, even a higher possibility of ischemic stroke. The increase in risk for stroke is thought to be because of a vitamin B deficiency and a hypercoaguable state brought on as an effect of the disease.

If you would like to to read more about this or see more about Crohn's in general visit crohns.net.

Information taken from
http://www.crohns.net/Miva/education/articles/Potential_Sequelae_of_Crohns_Disease.shtml\
http://www.crohns.net/Miva/education/articles/Crohns_Disease_Table_1.shtml