Retrospective Study
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World J Gastroenterol. Dec 7, 2014; 20(45): 17120-17126
Published online Dec 7, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i45.17120
Similar clinical characteristics of familial and sporadic inflammatory bowel disease in South Korea
Sook Hee Chung, Soo Jung Park, Hye Sun Lee, Sung Pil Hong, Jae Hee Cheon, Tae Il Kim, Won Ho Kim
Sook Hee Chung, Soo Jung Park, Sung Pil Hong, Jae Hee Cheon, Tae Il Kim, Won Ho Kim, Department of Internal Medicine and Institute of Gastroenterology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 120-752, South Korea
Sook Hee Chung, Department of Internal Medicine and institute of Gastroenterology, Ajou University College of Medicine, Suwon 443-380, South Korea
Hye Sun Lee, Department of Biostatistics, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 120-752, South Korea
Author contributions: Chung SH wrote the article; Park SJ designed the study and analyzed the data; Lee HS provided consultation about statistics; Hong SP, Cheon JH, Kim TI and Kim WH reviewed the manuscript.
Correspondence to: Soo Jung Park, MD, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine and Institute of Gastroenterology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50-1 Yonseiro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-752, South Korea. sjpark@yuhs.ac
Telephone: +82-2-22281963 Fax: +82-2-3652125
Received: February 26, 2014
Revised: April 29, 2014
Accepted: July 24, 2014
Published online: December 7, 2014
Abstract

AIM: To investigate differences of clinical characteristics and disease courses between familial and sporadic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients.

METHODS: We obtained clinical data on Crohn’s disease (CD) (n = 691) and ulcerative colitis (n = 1113) from a tertiary referral medical center between 2005 and 2012. Seventeen patients (2.5%) with CD and 27 patients (2.4%) with ulcerative colitis (UC) were identified as having a familial history of IBD, including the first and second degree relatives. For each control case, three times the number of age-, sex-, and diagnosis year-matched CD and UC patients, without a family history of IBD, were randomly selected in this case control study.

RESULTS: There were no significant differences in age or main symptom at diagnosis, extraintestinal manifestation, location/extent, behavior of disease activity, number of hospitalizations, number of operations, operation type, number of relapses, or oral medical treatment between familial and sporadic CD and UC patients. Median (min-max) follow-up periods after diagnosis of familial CD and sporadic CD patients were 84 (24-312) and 36 (8-240) mo, respectively (P = 0.008). Familial CD patients more frequently used anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antibodies compared to sporadic CD patients (17.6% vs 0%, P = 0.014).

CONCLUSION: In conclusion, a family history of IBD does not seem to be an important predictive factor affecting clinical characteristics or disease course even if there is a more frequent use of anti-TNF antibodies in familial CD patients compared to sporadic CD patients.

Keywords: Inflammatory bowel disease, Family history, Crohn’s disease, Ulcerative colitis, Clinical characteristics

Core tip: We investigated differences of clinical characteristics and disease courses between familial and sporadic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. Despite several other studies of IBD, there is still insufficient knowledge regarding the clinical characteristics in familial IBD. We report that a family history of IBD does not seem to be an important predictive factor affecting clinical characteristics or disease course. Not only genetic background but also environmental factors might affect the disease course of IBD.