Clinical significance of endoscopic findings in the upper gastrointestinal tract in Crohn’s disease

Abstract

Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory disorder that can affect the entire gastrointestinal tract but typically involves the ileocecal region. Before endoscopy was widely used, involvement of the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum was thought to be rare. Recent publications demonstrated that not only are upper gastrointestinal lesions common in Crohn’s disease (affecting up to 75% of the patients), but they also present characteristic endoscopic findings with potential clinical significance. It was suggested that lesions in the stomach with a bamboo joint-like appearance might be an endoscopic biomarker for Crohn’s disease. It was also found that this occurrence is related to a more severe disease course. Our review summarizes the literature, as well as our own observations and considerations, concerning the issue of upper gastrointestinal involvement in Crohn’s disease and its clinical meaning.

Keywords:

• Crohn’s disease
• bamboo-joint-like sign
• upper gastrointestinal involvement
• endoscopy
• IBD

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The project is financed from the program of the Minister of Science and Higher Education under the name “Regional Initiative of Excellence” in 2019–2022 project number 002/RID/2018/19.