What is the difference between Crohn's disease and Ulceretive colitis?

Question

How to recognize Crohn's disease and Ulcerative colitis right away?
I appreciate your help.

Answer 1

It is very difficult to distinguish between CD and UC based on clinical inspection alone, as both are inflammatory processes that may cause diarrhea and bleeding. However, CD causes involvement of any part of the GI tract, from mouth to anus, and thus manifestations of the esophagus, stomach (i.e. upper GI bleed present as black stool), small intestine (malabsorption), or mouth (such as oral aphthous ulcers) are good clues that you may be dealing with CD rather than UC. In contrast, UC is limited to the colon and thus will not cause the extracolonic effects I mentioned.

Patient information may also help, as CD is seen in younger people (with high prevalence in Jewish people), while UC is most commonly seen in older people.

Otherwise, definitive diagnosis is based on endoscopic and histological evidence of specific etiology.

Answer 2

Crohn's disease can cause pain on the lower right side. I have heard it described as an extreme pain that can feel like an appendicitis attack.

A person has to have a colonoscopy though to tell the difference between the two, as they have very similar symptoms. The doctor can tell what disease a person has as Ulcerative colitis is continues sores and Crohn's tends to be sporadic. There is a small number of people who have both Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis.

Answer 3

Crohn's disease (also known as regional enteritis) is a chronic, episodic, inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract characterized by transmural inflammation (affecting the entire wall of the involved bowel) and skip lesions (areas of inflammation with areas of normal lining in between

Ulcerative colitis is a form of colitis, a disease of the intestine, specifically the large intestine or colon, that includes characteristic ulcers, or open sores, in the colon. The main symptom of active disease is usually diarrhea mixed with blood, of gradual onset. Ulcerative colitis is, however, a systemic disease that affects many parts of the body outside the intestine.


First there would be some difference of symptoms but endoscopy and radiological tests like barium follow through and some blood test would help...its sometimes become very difficult to differentiate between the two and such colitis is called intermediate collitis....but differentaition is important as both have different course of treatment......

EndoScopy would help the distribution of disease........where it is continous in case of ULcerative and patchy or snake like in Crohn's disease...then biopsy can help in differntiation ! which shows that Ulcerative colitis involves the crypts !! see the following links which gives the differences between the two !

Answer 4

Please see the web page for more details on Differentiating Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.(Merck)
Please also see the other web pages for more details on Crohn's disease and Ulcerative colitis.

Answer 5

Chrons can affect any area of the digestive tract and not just the intestine. It also can effect several layers of the intestine, causing more severe problems.