Kidney can be target of pathology in Crohn's disease (25 December 2002)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Interstitial nephritis with renal failure
appears to be associated with Crohn's disease in patients who have not used
mesalamine, French researchers report.

Dr. H?l?ne Beaufils from Piti? Hospital Paris, and colleagues note that
reports of interstitial nephritis with renal failure have been reported in
patients with Crohn's disease who had been treated with mesalamine.

To investigate whether Crohn's disease and renal failure were associated in
the absence of mesalamine treatment, the researchers studied four patients
with severe interstitial nephritis. These patients had been diagnosed with
renal failure before or at the same time they were diagnosed with Crohn's
disease and had not been treated with mesalamine.

Three of the patients progressed to endstage renal failure, Dr. Beaufils'
team reports in the November issue of Gastroenterology. "Our results show
that the kidney can be an extraintestinal target of Crohn's disease," they
conclude.

They add that "several unanswered questions remain concerning the frequency
of interstitial nephritis in patients with Crohn's disease, as well as the
exact role of mesalamine in the development of chronic interstitial
nephritis."

Gastroenterology 2002;123:1436-1440.