Background: Extraintestinal manifestations can complicate the course of ulcerative colitis and can influence the prognosis.
Aims: Sixty-eight patients of the metropolitan area of Florence with ulcerative colitis in clinical and endoscopic remission were evaluated to establish the presence of spondyloarthritis.
Patients and methods: Each patient was studied through clinical and radiological evaluations to assess the presence of joint involvement.
Results: We found signs of spondyloarthritis in 19 patients (27.9%). Four of them had a classic ankylosing spondylitis (5.8%) and in 3 of them the aplotype HLA B27 was present. Sacroileitis was found in 9 (13.2%) patients (monolateral in 5 cases and bilateral in 4). Six patients (8.8%) showed an unclassifiable form of arthritis, fulfilling the Amor criteria. In 13 of 19 patients with spondyloarthritis, we found a pancolic extension of disease (68.4%).
Conclusions: The results obtained from our series of ulcerative colitis patients reveal a lower proportion of cases of spondyloarthritis than that found in other Italian studies. We are planning further investigations on a larger population to better assess the prevalence of spondyloarthritis in ulcerative colitis patients.