The Natural History of Adult Crohn's Disease in Population-Based Cohorts

Natural history studies provide invaluable data on the disease course. First, they help define the end points for clinical trials that are designed to test drugs for the end point of disease modification in chronic disabling diseases. Natural history studies can also help to identify subsets of patients in whom the disease prognosis can be stratified according to clinical features. This comprehensive review summarizes our current knowledge of the natural history of Crohn's disease in adults as reported in population-based studies that include long-term follow-up results.

We conducted a literature search of English and non-English language publications listed in the electronic databases of MEDLINE (source PUBMED, 1935 to December 2008).