Diverticulosis, Small-Intestinal

Andersen et al. (1988) reported a family in which 6 of 8 sibs had small-intestinal diverticula. Three of them had multiple jejunoileal diverticula, 1 had 2 jejunal diverticula, and 2 had duodenal diverticula. Four of the sibs had diseases of an immunologic nature: rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, myxedema following thyroiditis, and nonviral hepatitis. Rheumatoid arthritis was present in 1 of the sibs who had no small-intestinal diverticula. The affected sibs (2 female and 4 male) varied in age from 64 to 80 years at the time of investigation.

McKusick (1988) reported a 44-year-old patient with well-confirmed type IV Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (130050) who had numerous small intestinal diverticula as well as probable bladder diverticula. Arterial fragility, cutaneous fragility, and bruisability were relatively inconspicuous, but there was joint hyperextensibility, stretchable skin, and valvular cardiac disease. The patient had had gastrointestinal bleeding and epistaxis. He also had arthritis and a papillonodular dermatosis related, apparently, to the process going on in the diverticula.