Epidemiological and clinical aspects of ulcerative colitis in west of Iran: a cross sectional study

INTRODUCTION: One of the forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes inflammation and ulcers in colon is ulcerative colitis (UC). This study was aimed to determine the epidemiological and clinical aspects of patients with ulcerative colitis in the west of Iran. METHODS: In this cross sectional study, we evaluated 150 patients with definite diagnosis of UC who referred to a subspecialty gastroenterology clinic in Khorramabad, Iran. The study was performed from May 2014 to August 2015 by using census method. Demographic characteristics as well as patients’ clinical profiles were extracted using a checklist. Disease severity was determined by the Truelove and Witt’s classification of ulcerative colitis (UC). Data were analyzed using SPSS software, version 17 for windows (IBM Inc., NY, US). RESULTS: A total of 150 patients with definite diagnosis of UC were analyzed, including 84 (56 %) women and 66 (44 %) men (male/female ratio = 1.27). The mean age of patients was 33.7 ± 12.5 years with an age range of 17–98 years. The age of the majority of patients was 20–29 and most of them (56 %) were women and living in urban areas (70.7 %). The most common site of the involvement in colon was rectosigmoid (66 patients, 44 %). Severity of the disease was mild in 36 patients (24.1 %), moderate and severe in 74 and 40 patients (49.3 and 26.6 %), respectively. The most common clinical manifestation of the patients was dysentery (68 %) and then rectorrhagia (60 %). Only 12 of all patients (7.8 %) mentioned a positive family history of IBD in their first degree kinfolks. Ten patients (6.7 %) had a history of regular smoking and four of them (2.6 %) mentioned a history of appendectomy. Four patients (5.3 %) had a positive history of smoking by their mothers during their pregnancy. CONCLUSION: The results of this study demonstrate differences and similarities in demographic and clinical characteristics of UC in this part of Iran in comparison to other parts of the country.