[Colonic neoplasms and skin fibromas: common determinants and their significance].

To find common factors for colonic-neoplasias and skin-tags, 157 inpatients, who consecutively had a coloscopy because of intestinal complaints, were intensively examined dermatologically. Regression-analyses showed that the number of colonic polyps were age- (p = 3 x 10(-8)) and sex-dependent (1.9 x 10(-2)) and skin-tags had no influence on the number of colonic polyps. The size of colonic polyps also showed a clear age dependency (p = 3 x 10(-8)). The number of skin-tags were dependent on weight (p = 9 x 10(-3)) and age (p = 1.3 x 10(-2)), its size on the interaction of sex and triglyceride-levels (p = 3 x 10(-8)). Discriminant-analyses identified the following factors as important: age and triglyceride-concentration to recognize a patient with colonic polyps; age, positive Haemoccult-test and number of skin-tags to recognize a patient with tubulovillous adenomas or colonic carcinomas. The essential common factor of colonic polyps and skin-tags was the age. For the recognition of a patient with colonic polyps the age was the most essential factor, skin-tags, on the contrary, were unimportant. The association between colonic polyps and skin-tags therefore was merely an effect of age.