Cutaneous polyarteritis nodosa in a patient with Crohn’s disease

Inflammatory bowel disease and immune-mediated inflammatory diseases: looking at the less frequent associations

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) often have other immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs), and the prevalence of any IMID is higher in IBD patients than in the general population. IBD and other IMIDs involve alterations in innate and adaptive immune responses. Their co-occurrence depends on shared immune and inflammatory processes, pathogenic mechanisms, and genetic and environmental risk factors, including drugs, especially tumor necrosis factor inhibitors. The more common IMIDs associated with IBD have been widely described, so this review focuses on the less frequent associations. The IMIDs discussed here are skin disorders (psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, vitiligo, epidermolysis bullosa acquisita, cutaneous polyarteritis nodosa, and hidradenitis suppurativa), hepato-pancreatic diseases (autoimmune hepatitis, granulomatous hepatitis, and autoimmune pancreatitis), endocrine diseases (autoimmune thyroid diseases, and type 1 diabetes mellitus), multiple sclerosis, and respiratory diseases (asthma, bronchiectasis, and interstitial pneumonia). The early detection of IMIDs in IBD patients is important to prevent their deleterious clinical course and limit their psychological impact. Care for IBD patients with IMIDs should be multispecialist, with a single therapeutic strategy instead of treating each disease separately.

Crohn's Disease with Cutaneous Polyarteritis Nodosa in a Child: A Case Report

A 10-year-old boy presented with a 1-day history of multiple painful erythematous skin lesions on his upper and lower extremities. He was admitted to the Department of Pediatrics with persistent right lower abdominal pain and diarrhea. Punch biopsy of a skin lesion on his lower leg showed necrotizing granulomatous vasculitis with septal panniculitis consistent with polyarteritis nodosa, and our differential diagnosis included cutaneous manifestations of Croh's disease. Abdominal ultrasonography revealed distended colonic loops suggestive of inflammatory bowel disease. Upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed lesions involving the duodenum, cecum, colon, and rectum. He developed multiple perianal fistulas during hospitalization. Additional laboratory tests revealed positive results for anti-saccharomyces cerevisiae and antinuclear antibodies. Based on his clinical presentation and laboratory findings, he was diagnosed with Crohn's disease associated with cutaneous polyarteritis nodosa. We report a rare case of a child who presented with cutaneous polyarteritis nodosa as an extraintestinal manifestation of Crohn's disease.

Metastatic Crohn's disease: a review and approach to therapy

Metastatic Crohn's disease (CD) is a rare cutaneous manifestation of CD that was first described nearly 50 years ago. Many subsequent reports have defined its most common clinical and histopathologic features. The pathogenesis underlying metastatic CD is unknown but various hypotheses exist. An established standard therapy is lacking. Owing to its rarity and nonspecific clinical presentation along with the diversity of inflammatory skin disorders that often complicate CD, the diagnosis of metastatic CD may be overlooked. This report highlights the salient features of this disorder to facilitate recognition and management of this rare dermatosis.

Granulomatous vasculitis in Crohn's disease: a clinicopathologic correlate of two unusual cases

Cutaneous complications occur not uncommonly in patients with Crohn's disease (CD). Gastrointestinal CD often shows non-caseating granulomas and a rare cutaneous finding in CD is a sterile granulomatous infiltrate not contiguous with the GI tract, termed extraintestinal CD (ECD). The clinical presentation of ECD is diverse. The most common histopathological presentation is a superficial and deep granulomatous infiltrate that often accompanies a mixed perivascular infiltrate. Here we report two patients with CD and skin lesions characterized on microscopy by granulomatous vasculitis. A 29-year-old female presented with papules and ulcerated nodules above the ankle. The biopsy showed dermal and superficial subcutaneous involvement by a vasocentric infiltrate of mononuclear and multinucleated histiocytes as well as mural fibrin deposition. A 35-year-old male presented with two tender indurated erythematous plaques with punched-out centers on the lower leg. Histopathologically, a granulomatous vasculitis of small and medium-sized vessels in the dermis and subcutis was evident. These two cases represent the rarely described phenomenon of cutaneous granulomatous vasculitis in CD. Previously reported examples of this entity are reviewed.