In UC, IBS-Like Symptoms Are Common, Despite Remission

New research has suggested that irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)-like symptoms likely do not subside in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) in deep remission and can persist even after 20 years of disease.

Researchers arrived at this conclusion following a population-based study of 260 patients with UC that was diagnosed between 1990 and 1994.
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Patients reported their IBS symptoms 20 years after diagnosis in a Rome III questionnaire and also underwent colonoscopies with biopsies. In some patients, the level of fecal calprotectin was assessed.

Of the 260 patients assessed, 96 were found to be in deep remission based on the absence of signs of inflammation in colonic biopsies.

However, the researchers found that remission status had no effect on the frequency of IBS-like symptoms. Results indicated that the prevalence of IBS symptoms in the entire cohort was 27%, and that there was no difference in symptom prevalence among patients with ongoing inflammation and patients in deep remission.

“IBS-like symptoms in UC patients are frequent after 20 years of disease,” the researchers concluded. “Deep remission did not change the frequency of IBS-like symptoms.”

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Henriksen M, Høivik ML, Jelsness-Jørgensen LP, Moum B; IBSEN Study Group. Irritable bowel-like symptoms in ulcerative colitis are as common in patients in deep remission as in inflammation: results from a population-based study [the IBSEN Study]. J Crohn Colitis. 2018;12(4):389-393. https://doi.org/10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjx152.