Irritable Bowel Syndrome Characterization in a Population from Bihor County Romania

Abstract

Our aim was to analyse the characteristics of a large cohort of patients with IBS from Bihor County. We retrospectively studied 525 patients with IBS admitted between 2018-2023 in Bihor Emergency Clinical County Hospital. We extracted, interpreted and statistically analysed the following parameters: age, gender, environment, family history, smoking and alcohol status, Bristol scale, results of colonoscopy and treatment. The overall prevalence of IBS was 0.2%. Fifty-six % were women, 61% of patients were from urban environment, average age was 57.74 years, with a significant statistical difference between medium age in women vs men. There was a significant statistical correlation between the medium age, medium height, and weight of our patients and smoking status, alcohol consumption, and positive family history. Colonoscopy was done in 148 patients and conditions found in addition to IBS appeared in 7.6% of the cases. The dominant finding was tumoral (4% of IBS cases), followed by various inflammatory conditions. The mean age for patients with normal results was 55.07 years, 50.84 years for patients with inflammatory lesions and 67.81 years for tumoral lesions, with statistically significant correlations between age and the results of colonoscopy. We did not find statistical correlation between Bristol Scale and the results of colonoscopy. Only 142 patients followed specific treatment, suggesting low compliance. The epidemiological traits of our IBS patients seem to remain constant along the time as our research lines up with other studies. Among these, age, female gender and urban provenance seem to be the most significant factors, whereas habits, body mass index, and family history seem not to be statistically significant. As Rome criteria accurately diagnose IBS, we have to remember that colonoscopy should be recommended to a rather small and well selected cases of patients of older age, as in such cohorts tumoral lesions were most frequent.