Comparison of Various Clinical and Laboratory Features of Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis

The idiopathic inflammatory bowel diseases include Crohn's Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC).

Features that can be seen with some frequency in both conditions:

(1) fever

(2) abdominal pain

(3) diarrhea

(4) rectal bleeding

(5) weight loss

(6) signs of malnutrition

(7) risk for colon cancer

(8) friability of bowel mucosa

(9) pseudopolyps

(10) extraintestinal involvement

(11) cryptitis and crypt abscesses in histologic sections

(12) colon involvement

Findings which can be found in both but which favors ulcerative colitis

Parameter	Crohn's Disease	Ulcerative Colitis
passage of blood or mucus in stool	infrequent	common
rectum involvement	occasional	common
pANCA	occasional	common

Findings which can be found in both but which favors Crohn's disease

Parameter	Crohn's Disease	Ulcerative Colitis
growth impairment in pediatric patients	common	occasional
abdominal mass	occasional	rare
anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibodies	fairly common	occasional

Findings that tend to be found only in Crohn's disease

Parameter	Crohn's Disease	Ulcerative Colitis
segmental, discontinuous, skip lesions	common	absent (lesions continuous)
deep ulcers extending into the submucosa; fissuring ulcers	common	uncommon (ulcers tend to be superficial)
perianal disease	common	absent
absence of colon involvement	occasional	never
ileum involvement	common	may cause backwash ileitis
duodenum or jejunum involvement	infrequent	absent
esophageal or gastric involvement	infrequent	absent
stricture	common	uncommon
fistula	fairly common	absent
aphthous or linear ulcers	common	absent
cobblestone appearance	common	absent
granulomas in histologic sections	present (may be absent in small or superficial biopsies)	absent
transmucosal inflammation in histologic sections	common	absent
glandular changes in histologic sections from colon	absent (goblet cells preserved)	common (mucin depletion, glandular degeneration)

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