Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease

Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease

Ulcerative colitis

Ulcerative colitis is a type of chronic inflammatory bowel disease which affects the lining of the colon also known as the large intestine. Ulcerative colitis causes inflammation, ulcers, bleeding and fibrosis on the inner walls of the colon. The inflammation usually begins near the rectum and then expands to the colon. The inflammation occurs in adjacent areas rather than in the small segments (Ardizzone, & Bianchi, 1998).

Ulcerative colitis affects more than 88,000 people in Canada. It affects people of all ages, but especially those who belong to the age group of 15-25 years or 45-55 years. It can significantly affect your quality of life. Ulcerative colitis is a condition unpredictable, characterized by relapses (attacks of symptoms or relapses) followed by remissions (disappearance of symptoms). It is impossible to predict the occurrence of an outbreak. The risk of an outbreak in a given year is about 50%.

Crohn's disease

Crohn's disease is another form of inflammatory bowel disease. It is a chronic granulomatous inflammation which travels throughout the digestive tract, and it occurs from the mouth to the anus. Preferred are infested the lower small intestine (terminal ileum) and the large intestine (colon), the rare esophagus (esophagus) and the mouth. A major characteristic of Crohn's disease is the discontinuous, segmental involvement of the intestinal mucosa, it can therefore occur simultaneously affecting several intestinal segments, which are separated by healthy portions from each other.

Crohn's disease in contrast to ulcerative colitis not only inflames the intestinal surface, but there are some sick even deeper layers of the intestinal wall, which get affected by this disease. What causes lead to this disease is still unexplained (Gore et.al, 1996). As the disease occurs more frequently in families, genetic predisposition plays a major role. The disease is mainly noticeable at an early age. Then there is the average age of onset between 15 and 35th Years. Basically, Crohn's disease can also occur later in the elderly. The intestinal disease runs in spurts, so there are times when the patients prepares complaints and times that run asymptomatic (Wills et.al, 1997).

Pathology of Ulcerative colitis

The disease intiates in the rectosigmoid section and it gradually extends the proximally, which later on affects the entire colon, or simultaneously involve the entire large intestine. Ulcerative proctitis, a very frequent and milder, although often refractory disease usually remains localized in the rectum, although it may also undergo subsequent dissemination proximal about 10% of cases.

The pathologic alteration starts with degeneration of reticulin fibers located below the mucosal epithelium, with occlusion of the capillaries subepithelial and progressive infiltration of the lamina propria by plasma cells, eosinophils, lymphocytes, mast cells and polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Finally appear crypt abscesses, epithelial necrosis and ulceration of the mucosa (Schölmerich, & Herfarth, 1999).

Pathology of Crohn's disease

The findings vary according to the stage of the disease and the pattern thereof. In early cryptic focal injury observed with microabscedacion by neutrophils (cryptitis) are very similar to that described in ...