Surprised there were no answers to this - was already on page 2. You should ask your doctors that question, but I'm guessing biopsies from a colonoscopy showed Crohn's rather than UC. Here are some differences that I know of:
- Transmural inflammation, ie, inflammation which goes through all the bowel layers. Crohn's has this, UC doesn't. UC doesn't go deeper than the mucosa and submucosa. In early or mild Crohn's, the depth of inflammation may be shallow only.
- Skip sections, ie patches of healthy tissue in between the diseased parts. Crohn's tends to have this, whereas UC inflammation is continuous.
- Rectal involvement. In Crohn's, the rectum is frequently spared or only has minor disease, whereas in UC there is always rectal involvement.
- Presence of granulomas (cluster of cells only detectable in a biopsy). Sometimes these can be seen in Crohn's; virtually never in UC
- Perianal involvement, eg anal absecesses, fissures, fistulas. Sometimes get this with Crohn's, rarely with UC.
Those are the main differences that I know of, short of taking a crash course in pathology and learning about
the architectural structure of the mucosa. It's true that UC is usually left-sided, but Crohn's can appear in the left side as well. To confuse matters some more, the various features of Crohn's and UC can overlap enough that doctors actually don't know which is which - such cases are usually called Indeterminate Colitis, but sometimes the diagnosis is changed to a definite one later on.
That said, if the doctors found enough to decide on Crohn's colitis, my feeling is it's really Crohn's. The inflammation in the small bowel just confirms it, tbh.
Post Edited (NiceCupOfTea) : 7/25/2013 10:54:41 AM (GMT-6)