Retrospective Evaluation of Cases Diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis
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Introduction: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal canal characterised by remissions and exacerbations. This study aimed to make a retrospective evaluation of clinical and laboratory findings of patients being monitored with a diagnosis of IBD. Materials and Methods: Medical records of 18 patients with a diagnosis of IBD and 7 years of follow-up at our pediatric gastroenterology departments were investigated with respect to demographic data, complaints on presentation and accompanying diseases. Unusual findings from physical examination, endoscopic findings, histopathological findings and the applied treatments were examined. Results: The 18 patients (10 female, 8 male) included in this study had a mean age of 13.6 +/- 2.9 years and the mean time from onset of symptoms to diagnosis was 6.9 +/- 4.5 months. Seventeen patients were diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and 1 patient with intermediate colitis. There was a positive family history of the disease in 2 patients (11%). At the time of diagnosis, the most common complaints on presentation were found to be abdominal pain (100%), bloody diarrhea (94.5%) and tenesmus (44.4%). The most frequent laboratory findings were CRP positivity (89%), increased sedimentation rate (83.3%) and iron-deficient anaemia (77.7%). On colonoscopy, pancolitis involvement (66.6%) was most frequently encountered. Accompanying diseases to IBD were found to be familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) (11%), celiac disease (5.5%) and Heliobacter pylori gastritis (5.5%). One patient (5.5%) who did not respond to medical treatment for pancolitis involvement underwent a colectomy. Discussion: The number of diagnoses of IBD in childhood is gradually increasing. Nonetheless, it can be difficult to define diseases with non-specific symptoms and this may cause a delay in diagnosis. Because of the association of autoimmune diseases with IBD, despite appropriate therapy, diseases with no remission which lead to gastrointestinal inflammation, such as FMF, should be further investigated.