Post-infectious and non post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome: A comparative study

OBJECTIVE: To compare the post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome (PI-IBS) and none post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome (NPI-IBS) clinically and experimentally. METHODS: From May 2013 to January 2015, eighty-nine patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)were recruited in the internal department of the affiliated hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The clinical data were collected for all the patients, and a blood sample was collected to detect the level of C-reactive protein (CRP) and intestinal fatty acid binding protein (IFABP), an investigation questionnaire of gastrointestinal symptom rating scale (GSRS) and self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) were carried out to evaluate the gastrointestinal function and anxiety status. RESULTS: In the study, forty-eight patients were included in PI-IBS group and 41 in Non-PI-IBS group. There was no significant difference in age, gender and GSRS between the two groups (p>0.05). In PI-IBS group 70.8% patients presented with the primary symptom of diarrhea and 60.4% presented with a SAS scores over 50, but in Non-PI-IBS group, the values were only 19% (p<0.05) and 34.1% (p<0.05). The level of IFABP and CRP were significantly higher in PI-IBS group than those in Non-PI-IBS group (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The PI-IBS may be different from Non-PI-IBS in mechanism and should be treated using different strategies.