[Clinical case of a combination of ulcerative colitis and alopecia areata]

Abstract

Extraintestinal manifestations of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are common in both ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Dermatological manifestations have been reported in one-third of all extraintestinal manifestations of IBD. Erythema nodosum and pyoderma gangrenosum are the most frequently described in the literature. There is no data on the development of alopecia as a cutaneous manifestation of IBD in most of studies. A clinical case of combination of ulcerative colitis and alopecia in young woman is presented in the article. There are several possible causes of alopecia in patients with IBD, such as nutritional deficiencies, side effects of medications or autoimmune alopecia. Most often there is no correlation between the severity of clinical bowel manifestations and other organs involvement, and response to therapy. So the combination of alopecia with IBD, in particular ulcerative colitis, confirms the importance of autoimmune mechanisms in genesis of these diseases.