In Brittany, the age specific incidence, clinical features, and prognosis of CD among the elderly are comparable to those in younger individuals. Colon involvement is more common. Concomitant diverticular disease is common and should prompt a search for CD lesions at other sites to confirm the diagnosis. Older patients are less likely to require immunosuppressants or admission for flares.

More than 80 % of the first degree relatives of 106 patients with iron overload ‐ 97 with idiopathic haemochrornatosis (I.H.) and nine with haemosiderosis secondary to alcohol induced liver disease (A.H.) ‐ were examined. Physical examination and measurement of plasma iron level and UIBC were done in all subjects; relatives who presented with some anomaly were submitted to a desferrioxamine test and, if the latter showed a high urinary iron output, to a liver biopsy. While absent in relatives of A.H. patients, iron overload was present in 78 out of 499 relatives of I.H. patients: 29 major and 49 minor forms. The major forms involved the sibships almost exclusively. The genetic analysis showed much evidence in favour of a recessive or rather intermediate form of inheritance, with heterozygous developing minor forms. However, other modes of transmission, especially poly‐genic (probably oligogenic), cannot be totally excluded. Data from recent studies showing a strong correlation between I.H. and certain HLA antigens do not conflict with the above conclusions.

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