ANTINUCLEAR AUTOANTIBODIES IN PATIENTS WITH INFLAMMATORY BOWEL-DISEASE - HIGH PREVALENCE IN FIRST-DEGREE RELATIVES

Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis show a familial aggregation. Th e role of antinuclear autoantibodies, which occur in both diseases, re mains to be defined. In 76 patients with Crohn's disease, 61 patients with ulcerative colitis, 105 first-degree relatives of patients with C rohn's disease, 101 first-degree relatives of patients with ulcerative colitis, and 40 healthy unrelated controls antinuclear autoantibodies were detected by indirect immunofluorescence. Existence of autoantibo dies was correlated with clinical features. Eighteen percent of patien ts with Crohn's disease (14/76), 43% of patients with ulcerative colit is (26/61), 13% of relatives of patients with Crohn's disease (14/105) , 24% of relatives of ulcerative colitis patients (24/101), and 2% of the healthy controls (1/40) were positive for antinuclear autoantibodi es. The difference between controls and patients and the first-degree relatives of patients with ulcerative colitis, respectively, was stati stically significant (P less than or equal to 0.0144). In ulcerative c olitis, the existence of antinuclear autoantibodies was negatively cor related with immunosuppressive therapy or extraintestinal manifestatio ns (P = 0.0004 and 0.0273, respectively). Antinuclear autoantibodies m ay represent a factor disposing to the development of ulcerative colit is.