title: Crohn's disease defined in three elderly sisters.
abstract: Three elderly sisters presented with symptomatic Crohn's disease. All had ileocolic involvement, and granulomatous inflammation was documented in endoscopic biopsies or surgically resected intestinal specimens. The present report documents the unusual occurrence of very late phenotypical expression of familial ileocolic Crohn's disease. The observations presented here reflect a possible gene-based predisposition to Crohn's disease or, alternatively, disease clustering related to a commonly shared environmental factor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. hugfree@shaw.ca
authors.forename: Hugh J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Freeman
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001706:Biopsy; D003108:Colonic Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D003113:Colonoscopy; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007077:Ileal Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology