Clinical and endoscopic diagnosis in the differentiation of Crohn's disease from intestinal tuberculosis

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Objective To compare the clinical features and endoscopic findings of Crohn's disease(CD) and intestinal tuberculosis(ITB) in order to differentiate CD from ITB. Methods The clinical and endoscopic data from 168 patients with CD and 156 patients with ITB between June 2003 and February 2009 were retrospectively analyzed. Results The salient features of CD were male patients in predominance (male : female was 108 :60) and high incidence of colectomy (CD 33.3% vs ITB 10.9%, P<0.01). Diarrhea (66.1%), hematochezia (32.1%), perianal disease (16.1%), intestinal obstruction (28.0%) were more frequent in CD patients than in ITB patients (47.0%, 7.7%, 3.4%, 9.4% respectively, all P values<0.05). The salient features of ITB were night sweating, pulmonary tuberculosis, ascites, hyperglobulin, increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate and the positive serum antibody to mycobacterium. The endoscopic examination showed that the fissure-shape ulcer, grid-shape ulcer, cobblestone sign and intestinal stricture were more frequent in CD patients than in ITB patients (all P values <0.05). Whereas the circular ulcer and involved ileocecal valve with fixed bouche shape were more common in ITB patients (P<0.05). Conclusions The clinical characteristics are different in CD and ITB patients. The endoscopic findings including fissure-shape ulcer, grid-shape ulcer, circular ulcer, cobblestone sign and the status of involved ileocecal valve are important in the differentiation of ITB from CD. Key words: Crohns disease; Intestinal tuberculosis; Clinic; Endoscopy; Diagnosis; differential