Special features

Inflammatory bowel disease — the disease and its diagnosis

By Chiedzo Mpofu, MBChB, MRCP, and Alan Ireland, DPhil, FRCP

This article as a FULL TEXT PDF (60K)

Chiedzo Mpofu is a specialist registrar in gastroenterology and Alan Ireland is a consultant gastroenterologist at the Digestive Diseases Centre, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, Eastern Road, Brighton

CNRI / SPL

Ulcerative colitis

Part of a coloured barium X-ray of the colon of a patient suffering from ulcerative colitis

ABSTRACT

Inflammatory bowel diseases are characterised by chronic, relapsing intestinal inflammation. The first part of this month's special feature sets out the clinical features and diagnosis of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease