Brief Article
Copyright ©2014 Baishideng Publishing Group Co.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 14, 2014; 20(2): 509-517
Published online Jan 14, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i2.509
Figure 1
Figure 1 Clinical course of ulcerative colitis patients treated according to the status of cytomegalovirus antigen. A flow chart of the clinical courses of the 118 patients according to the strategy based on cytomegalovirus (CMV) antigen status is shown. UC: Ulcerative colitis; CMV Ag: Cytomegalovirus antigenemia assay; PSL: Prednisolone; CAI: Clinical activity index; GCV: Ganciclovir; CNIs: Calcineurin inhibitors; TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor-α.
Figure 2
Figure 2 Short-term remission rate according to cytomegalovirus antigen status. Kaplan-Meier curves for the rate of induction of remission. A: The remission rate from the day of starting the remission-induction therapy; B: The remission rate from the day when the status of cytomegalovirus (CMV) antigen was determined. Both curves show the better clinical course in the CMV-negative group (P = 0.0006 and P = 0.03, respectively, Log-rank test). The median number of days to remission from the start of the treatment based on our strategy was significantly greater for patients in the CMV-positive group than for patients in the CMV-negative group (21 d vs 16 d, P = 0.009, Mann-Whitney U test).
Figure 3
Figure 3 Relapse rate after successful induction of remission according to cytomegalovirus antigen status. The rate of relapse after successful induction of remission with the initial treatment was shown. The rate of relapse after successful induction of remission did not differ between the patients in the cytomegalovirus (CMV)-positive and -negative groups (P = 0.36, Log-rank test).
Figure 4
Figure 4 Colectomy rate according to cytomegalovirus antigen status. The cumulative colectomy rate according to cytomegalovirus (CMV) antigen status. Twelve (30%) of the CMV-positive patients and 24 (30.8%) of the CMV-negative patients underwent colectomy during the observation period and no difference in colectomy rate was observed between the two groups (P = 0.81, Log-rank test, median observation period: 31 mo).