Arthritis associated with Ulcerative Colitis

Abstract

Of 333 unselected consecutive cases of ulcerative colitis seen at Montefiore Hospital in the past 22 years, 2.7% had ankylosing spondylitis and 1.5% had rheumatoid arthritis. These findings represent a 50-fold increase in frequency of occurrence of ankylosing spondylitis in patients with ulcerative colitis over the expected incidence in the general population, and a normal incidence of rheumatoid arthritis. No data was found to support the idea of an arthritis specific to patients with ulcerative colitis and different from ankylosing spondylitis and rheumatoid arthritis. Our data indicate that there is a higher proportion of female cases of spondylitis among the patients with ankylosing spondylitis and ulcerative colitis. Ankylosing spondylitis occurred before ulcerative colitis in a small majority of cases. No evidence was found of the synchronous exacerbation of arthritis and colitis in the same patient.