Minireviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther. May 6, 2016; 7(2): 235-241
Published online May 6, 2016. doi: 10.4292/wjgpt.v7.i2.235
Predictive factors for a severe clinical course in ulcerative colitis: Results from population-based studies
Magnus Hofrenning Wanderås, Bjørn A Moum, Marte Lie Høivik, Øistein Hovde
Magnus Hofrenning Wanderås, Department of Medicine, Innlandet Hospital Trust, 2819 Gjøvik, Norway
Magnus Hofrenning Wanderås, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, 0450 Oslo, Norway
Bjørn A Moum, Marte Lie Høivik, Department of Gastroenterology, Oslo University Hospital, 0424 Oslo, Norway
Bjørn A Moum, Øistein Hovde, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, 0424 Oslo, Norway
Øistein Hovde, Department of Gastroenterology, Innlandet Hospital Trust, 2819 Gjøvik, Norway
Author contributions: Wanderås MH and Hovde Ø contributed equally to the design of the review; Wanderås MH was responsible for drafting the article; Hovde Ø was responsible for revising the article thoroughly and for critical intellectual content; Moum BA and Høivik ML made essential contributions in the early phase, and both provided important feedback in the final stage of drafting; all authors approved the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with any of the authors who contributed to this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Øistein Hovde, Associate Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Innlandet Hospital Trust, Kyrre Greppsgt. 11, 2819 Gjøvik, Norway. oistein.hovde@sykehuset-innlandet.no
Telephone: +47-450-02658 Fax: +47-611-57439
Received: June 30, 2015
Peer-review started: July 4, 2015
First decision: July 17, 2015
Revised: January 26, 2016
Accepted: March 9, 2016
Article in press: March 14, 2016
Published online: May 6, 2016
Processing time: 295 Days and 6.1 Hours
Abstract

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is characterized by chronic inflammation of the large bowel in genetically susceptible individuals exposed to environmental risk factors. The disease course can be difficult to predict, with symptoms ranging from mild to severe. There is no generally accepted definition of severe UC, and no single outcome is sufficient to classify a disease course as severe. There are several outcomes indicating a severe disease course, including progression of the disease’s extension, a high relapse rate, the development of acute severe colitis, colectomy, the occurrence of colorectal cancer and UC-related mortality. When evaluating a patient’s prognosis, it is helpful to do so in relation to these outcomes. Using these outcomes also makes it easier to isolate factors predictive of severe disease. The aims of this article are to evaluate different disease outcomes and to present predictive factors for these outcomes.

Keywords: Ulcerative colitis; Disease course; Prognosis; Severity; Colectomy; Relapse; Acute severe colitis; Cancer; Mortality

Core tip: The disease course of ulcerative colitis (UC) can be difficult to predict. There is no generally accepted definition of severe UC. There are several outcomes indicating a severe disease course, including progression of the disease extension, a high relapse rate, the development of acute severe colitis, colectomy, the occurrence of colorectal cancer and UC-related mortality. Using these outcomes is helpful when determining patient prognosis and also makes it easier to isolate predictive factors for severe disease. The aim of this article is to evaluate different disease outcomes and to present predictive factors for these outcomes.