Extensive cutaneous sarcoidosis and coexistant Crohn disease with dual response to infliximab: case report and review of the literature.
Abstract
Sarcoidosis and Crohn disease (CD) are granulomatous disorders of unknown etiology that are rarely seen together in one patient. We describe a woman in her 40s with well-established diagnoses of pulmonary and cutaneous sarcoidosis and CD involving the terminal ileum, whose skin and gastrointestinal symptoms improved dramatically with infliximab treatment (5mg/kg on weeks 0, 2, 6, then every 8 weeks). The concurrence of sarcoidosis and CD has only been reported in a handful of cases and a review of the literature reveals that the two diseases share many clinical and immunological features, suggesting the presence of an underlying connection. Further studies of patients with overlap syndromes may provide deeper insight into the clinical spectrum, and possibly the pathogenesis, of idiopathic granulomatous diseases.