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World J Gastroenterol. Sep 14, 2016; 22(34): 7735-7741
Published online Sep 14, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i34.7735
Inflammatory bowel disease and airway diseases
Maria Vutcovici, Paul Brassard, Alain Bitton
Maria Vutcovici, Alain Bitton, Division of Gastroenterology, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal General Hospital, Montreal, Québec H3G 1A4, Canada
Paul Brassard, Division of Clinical Epidemiology, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Québec H3A 1A1, Canada
Paul Brassard, Alain Bitton, Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Québec H3G 1Y6, Canada
Author contributions: Vutcovici M, Brassard P and Bitton A contributed equally to the conception and design of the manuscript; Vutcovici M conducted the literature review and drafted the manuscript; Bitton A and Brassard P contributed to the critical revision and editing; all authors approved the final version.
Supported by Financial support for this study was provided through internal funding from the McGill University Health Centre.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors has any conflict of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Maria Vutcovici, MD, MSc, Division of Gastroenterology, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal General Hospital, 1650 Cedar Avenue D16-125, Montreal, Québec H3G 1A4, Canada. maria.vutcovici@mail.mcgill.ca
Telephone: +514-340-8222-3678 Fax: +514-843-2891
Received: March 24, 2016
Peer-review started: March 25, 2016
First decision: May 12, 2016
Revised: June 14, 2016
Accepted: July 6, 2016
Article in press: July 6, 2016
Published online: September 14, 2016
Abstract

Airway diseases are the most commonly described lung manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, the similarities in disease pathogenesis and the sharing of important environmental risk factors and genetic susceptibility suggest that there is a complex interplay between IBD and airway diseases. Recent evidence of IBD occurrence among patients with airway diseases and the higher than estimated prevalence of subclinical airway injuries among IBD patients support the hypothesis of a two-way association. Future research efforts should be directed toward further exploration of this association, as airway diseases are highly prevalent conditions with a substantial public health impact.

Keywords: Inflammatory bowel disease, Ulcerative colitis, Asthma, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Crohn's disease

Core tip: Recent evidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) occurrence among patients with airway diseases and the higher than estimated prevalence of subclinical airway injuries among IBD patients support the hypothesis of a two-way association between these conditions. Future research efforts should be directed toward further exploration of this association, as airway diseases are highly prevalent conditions with a substantial public health impact.