Association of Demyelinating and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: A Case Series and Overview of the Literature

Abstract

Neurological complications of inflammatory bowel diseases (i.e., ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease) can be summarized as a combination of neuromuscular manifestations, cerebrovascular and demyelinating diseases that can be seen in approximately 3% of patients. In addition, asymptomatic cerebral white matter lesions may be detected in these patients. Clustering of diseases within families may be explained by the exposure to similar environmental factors, shared genes, or complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors. Here we report an epileptic patient with Crohn's disease and cerebral white matter lesions, a family with ulcerative colitis and multiple sclerosis and two patients who have both multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease.