Turner's Syndrome and Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Case Report with Immunologic Studies

A patient with Turner's syndrome who developed ulcerative colitis (UC) is reported, and reports from the literature of 16 cases of Turner's syndrome with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are reviewed. Most of the patients previously described bad severe disease. Half of the patients bad ulcerative colitis and half bad Crohn's disease (CD). Of those with Crohn's, most bad colonic involvement. Of note, also, half of the patients bad an isochromosome for the long arm of X which usually is found in only 17% of all patients with Turner's syndrome. A high incidence of autoimmune diseases is associated with this syndrome. We demonstrate the presence of specific anticolonic antibodies in this patient and propose some possible explanations for the association of this particular chromosomal disorder with autoimmune diseases.