Características de la enfermedad inflamatoria intestinal pediátrica en un hospital de la capital de Córdoba, Argentina

Abstract

IntroductionInflammatory Bowel Disease is an immune mediated, chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. It includes ulcerative colitis (UC), Crohn's disease (CD) and IBD-unclassified (IBD-U). About 25-30% of patients with CD and 20% of patients with UC are diagnosed in the pediatric age. The objective of this study was to describe the onset characteristics, behavior and treatment of a group of patients in a reference center in Argentina. Materials and MethodsThis is a retrospective study that describes all IBD patients aged between 1 and 16 years that attended to the Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology between 2012 and 2020 in a referral center in Cordoba Province. ResultsTwenty-two patients were included in the registry; 59.1% were girls. Mean age at diagnosis was 7.7 years. UC was diagnosed in 15 patients (68.2%), CD in 3 patients (13.6%) and IBD-U in 4 patients (18.2%). The median delay between the onset of symptoms and the diagnosis of IBD was 4 months for UC, 7 months for CD and 15 months for IBD-U. The most common symptom at diagnosis was recurrent abdominal pain. We found 36.4% of patients had anemia at diagnosis. In patients with CD, the involvement of all patients was ileocolonic, and nearly 60% of UC and IBD-U patients had pancolitis extention. Four out of 16 patients had clinical remission of their disease activity (25%) after twelve weeks of treatment. ConclusionsThis is the first series of cases that describe a significant number of patients outside of Buenos Aires, Argentina. We found that UC was the most frequent form of IBD and abdominal pain was the most frequent symptom at diagnosis. More national series of pediatric IBD patients, including patients from the public and private healthcare system, are needed in order to improve the clinical description of inflammatory bowel disease and response to therapy..