Tracheal and bronchial involvement in colitis ulcerosa – a colo-bronchitic syndrome? A case report and some additional considerations

Systemic involvement is well known in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), but there are only few data looking to Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) separately instead of lumping together both entities to IBD. The frequency of bronchial involvement in UC is not yet exactly analysed but reported to be rare. We asked 100 patients with UC for bronchial complaints, and found in 13 patients a bronchial affection. From reports in the literature it is known that sometimes a bronchial involvement in patients with UC can affect the whole bronchial tree including small bronchi. The involvement of bronchial system in UC is obviously more prominent than previously thought and may fulfil the criteria for a separate syndrome. These relations may have consequences for pathogenetic understanding of UC as well as bronchitis and also consequences for treatment regimes.