The SpACE Study - Small Bowel Crohn's Disease and Spondyloarthropathies

Inflammatory bowel disease is clinically associated with spondylarthropathies in 5-15% of cases. Protocol colonoscopic assessment demonstrated asymptomatic inflammation characteristic of Crohn's disease in up to 1/3 of SpA patients. Videocapsule endoscopy is a superior diagnostic tool to detect small bowel mucosal pathology. However, it has been infrequently used to evaluate bowel inflammation in spondylarthropathies. This study compared the accuracy of videocapsule endoscopy to standard ileocolonoscopy for the detection of inflammatory bowel lesions in patients with spondylarthropathies, and to describe the clinical and laboratory predictors of small bowel inflammation in this cohort.