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Long-standing colonic inflammation is associated with a low prevalence of diverticuli in inflammatory bowel disease patients

✍ Scribed by Adi Lahat; Benjamin Avidan; Simon Bar-Meir; Yehuda Chowers


Publisher
John Wiley and Sons
Year
2007
Tongue
English
Weight
89 KB
Volume
13
Category
Article
ISSN
1078-0998

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✦ Synopsis


Background:

Diverticulosis is associated with high intracolonic pressure and a weakened bowel wall. chronic colitis is characterized by liquid stools suggestive of low intracolonic pressure and a thickened bowel wall. therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of diverticulosis in colitis patients.

Methods:

Colonoscopy results of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (ibd)-associated colitis older than 50 years were retrospectively evaluated and compared with those of patients who underwent screening colonoscopy. only patients with biopsy-proven disease, disease duration of more than 5 years, and disease beyond the distal 20 cm were included.

Results:

In all, 1037 patients were diagnosed by colonoscopy as suffering from ibd-associated colitis between 1987-2005. after exclusion of patients who did not meet the inclusion criteria the study population consisted of 314 ibd patients and 1023 age-matched control patients. a significantly higher percent of diverticuli was detected in the control group compared with the ibd group (15% versus 3.5%, p < 0.001). no significant difference in the prevalence of diverticuli was detected between the three subtypes of ibd patients (2% in ulcerative colitis versus 4.7% in crohn's colitis versus 7.6% in indeterminant colitis). neither disease duration nor the specific colonic segment involved had a significant influence on the prevalence of diverticulosis.

Conclusions:

Long-standing colonic inflammation in ibd patients is associated with a lower prevalence of diverticuli.