Clinical characteristics of Crohn s disease in Qatar

OBJECTIVE: To assess the clinical characteristics of Crohn's disease (CD) in Qatar.

METHODS: This is a retrospective descriptive study. We studied 50 CD patients admitted to Hamad General Hospital over a period of 8 years from January 1995 to December 2002. We retrospectively collected and analyzed the demographic and clinical data. We made the diagnostic classification of definite CD in accordance with the criteria based on the International Classification of Disease ninth revision [ICD-9]. We based the obtained information on the following parameters: the age at the time of admission, gender and Crohn's risk factor profiles.

RESULTS: Of the studied population, 60% were males and 40% females. Sixty-two percent were Qataris and 38% expatriates. Most of the subjects were <40 years of age (80%). Fifty-two percent had ileo-colonic disease, 24% colonic and 24% ileal disease. The majority of the Crohn's patients had the symptom of abdominal pain (84%), followed by weight loss (80%) and diarrhea (70%). Pallor sign was most frequent in patients with inflammatory CD (76.9%) and obstructive CD (66.7%), whereas we found the anal signs in patients with fistulas (84.2%).

CONCLUSION: The study showed a relatively high frequency of ileo-colonic Crohn's disease compared to colonic and ileal diseases. We observed that the most frequent symptom is abdominal pain.