Abstract:

In recent years, there has been a trend towards of over-diagnosis in inflammatory bowel disease(IBD). Over-diagnosis, like under-diagnosis, also triggers endless consequences.In the clinical practice, most of the effort is focused on distinguishing IBD from the common diseases such as intestinal tuberculosis, intestinal Behcet′s syndrome, intestinal lymphoma and ischemic colitis.However, there is less awareness of the differential diagnosis between IBD and the rare intestinal diseases.Based on current literature and personal experience, this editorial introduces various rare intestinal diseases that are easily misdiagnosed as IBD, calling for vigilance in the differential diagnosis of IBD and rare IBD-like diseases.

Key words: Inflammatory bowel disease, Ulcerative colitis, Crohn′s disease, Intestinal diseases, Differential diagnosis