Crohn's Disease: A Screening Study in First Degree Relatives

Pursuing very early diagnosis is standard of care for several diseases including colon cancer, diabetes and liver disease where an early and aggressive diagnostic and therapeutic approach has been shown to change their natural history. Crohn's disease [CD] still lags since commonly at presentation CD has already run a long course, often responding poorly to therapy or requiring surgery. This innovative project proposes a minimally invasive strategy - capsule endoscopy-based screening of first degree relatives [FDR's] of CD patients - to develop tools to diagnose CD at or near its biologic onset.