Chapter 72

Crohn's Disease: Clinical Manifestations and Management

Gil Y. Melmed

Gil Y. Melmed

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA

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Stephan R. Targan

Stephan R. Targan

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA

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First published: 27 November 2015

Summary

Crohn's disease can result in a variety of symptoms, and significantly impacts quality of life. The varied manifestations of Crohn's disease may reflect the extensive heterogeneity of genetic susceptibility, clinical expression, anatomic distribution, disease phenotype, natural history, and response to therapy. There are several goals of therapy in the treatment Crohn's disease. For the patient suffering with debilitating symptoms, the primary goal may be relief of symptoms, including bowel frequency, urgency, bleeding, pain, fatigue, or debilitating extra intestinal manifestations. Mechanisms of action, trial data or metaanalyses of clinical trials, and adverse events are presented. Patients should be screened for latent tuberculosis with either a purified protein derivative skin test, or serum interferon release assay, patients with positive results should undergo chest x-ray and potentially initiate antituberculosis therapy prior to starting an anti-TNF drug particularly if any risk factors for prior tuberculosis exposure are present.

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