Epidemiological characteristics of Asian children with inflammatory bowel disease at diagnosis: Insights from an Asian-Pacific multi-centre registry network

Table 3 Clinical features in different subtypes of PIBD in the Asia-Pacific region

	IBD subtypes			P value (CD vs UC)
	CD, n = 174 (55.9%)	UC, n = 119 (38.3%)	IBD-U, n = 18 (5.8%)
Symptoms at diagnosis (n, column %)
Abdominal pain	107 (61.5)	53 (44.5)	7 (38.9)	0.004
Chronic diarrhoea	104 (59.8)	69 (58.0)	10 (55.6)	0.760
Bloody diarrhoea	60 (34.5)	89 (74.8)	11 (61.1)	< 0.001
Weight loss	81 (46.6)	44 (37.0)	9 (50.0)	0.104
Fever	66 (37.9)	21 (17.6)	2 (11.1)	< 0.001
Loss of appetite	57 (32.8)	19 (16.0)	6 (33.3)	0.001
Malaise/fatigue	28 (16.1)	8 (6.7)	1 (5.6)	0.016
Oral ulcers	36 (20.7)	1 (0.8)	0 (0.0)	< 0.001
Perianal symptoms (pain/discharge)	23 (13.2)	3 (2.5)	1 (5.6)	0.002
Joint pains	13 (7.5)	6 (5.0)	0 (0.0)	0.407
Physical signs at diagnosis (n, column %)
Pallor	68 (39.1)	32 (26.9)	5 (27.8)	0.031
Hepatomegaly	8 (4.6)	12 (10.1)	2 (11.1)	0.067
Abdominal tenderness	47 (27.0)	15 (12.6)	2 (11.1)	0.003
Asymptomatic perianal tags	25 (14.4)	3 (2.5)	1 (5.6)	0.001
Perianal fissure	20 (11.5)	2 (1.7)	1 (5.6)	0.002
Muscle wasting	25 (14.4)	7 (5.9)	1 (5.6)	0.022
Arthritis	12 (6.9)	3 (2.5)	0 (0.0)	0.095
Erythema nodosum	8 (4.6)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	0.018
Anthropometric parameters (SD)
Mean weight Z-score	-1.4 (1.7)	-1.0 (1.7)	-0.7 (2.2)	0.110
Mean height Z-score	-0.8 (1.5)	-0.6 (1.6)	-0.6 (2.4)	0.583
Growth failure (Height Z-score less than -2) (%)	18.4	16.1	17.6	0.907
Mean BMI Z-score	-1.5 (1.8)	-0.9 (1.7)	-0.6 (1.8)	0.013
Laboratory investigations at diagnosis (SD)
Mean haemoglobin, g/dL	10.6 (1.9)	11.0 (2.5)	10.9 (1.5)	0.221
Mean ESR, mm/hr	50.8 (30.5)	42.6 (34.4)	34.9 (32.2)	0.063
Mean C-reactive protein, mg/L	54.6 (55.0)	20.1 (24.3)	7.1 (9.1)	< 0.001
Mean albumin, g/dL	33.0 (8.7)	35.4 (8.4)	37.2 (7.1)	0.040
Mean ALT, U/L	18.5 (20.5)	72.7 (162.0)	20.4 (13.4)	< 0.001
Mean AST, U/L	27.0 (32.9)	84.2 (170.7)	30.5 (10.5)	0.001
Mean GGT, U/L	38.3 (79.8)	126.7 (160.8)	30.8 (40.0)	< 0.001
Mean faecal calprotectin, μg/g	783 (1009.0)	583.4 (353.1)	593.5 (300.5)	0.447

ALT: Alanine transaminase; AST: Aspartate transaminase; BMI: Body mass index; CD: Crohn’s disease; ESR: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate; GGT: Gamma-glutamyl transferase; IBD-U: Inflammatory bowel disease-Unclassified; UC: Ulcerative colitis.