P766 ABO blood groups and ulcerative colitis: A hospital-based study in central Taiwan

Abstract

Abstract Background The variations in ABO blood groups are reported to be associated with multiple disorders. Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic and relapsing disease of the gastrointestinal tract with unclear etiology. The incidence and prevalence of UC are low but increasing in Taiwan The aim of our current study was to investigate the distribution of ABO blood groups in patients with UC and to explore its impact on disease severity. Methods From January 2000 to November 2019, we retrospectively collected patients diagnosed as UC in our hospital, a tertiary referral center in central Taiwan. Clinical characteristics of patients with UC including gender, age at diagnosis, ABO blood groups, disease phenotype and behaviour, operation rate and baseline laboratory data were collected. Results A total of 129 patients with UC were enrolled into our current study (Table 1). We found out male predominance as 62.8% of all patients. The mean diagnostic age of all UC patients was 39.0 years. Of 129 UC patients, 43 (33.3%) were blood type O, 41 (31.8%) were blood type A, 38 (29.5%) were blood type B, and the remainders 7 (5.4%) were blood type AB. However, there was no significant association between the ABO blood groups and UC patients compared with the general population of Taiwanese1 (p = 0.1906) (Table 2). In the subgroup analysis of each blood type, there were no significant difference of disease location and operation rate between groups. Furthermore, blood type A UC patients had higher hemoglobin level compared with blood type O patients (13.31 g/dl vs. 12.30 g/dl, p = 0.0347). Blood type A UC patients had lower erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) level compared with blood type O patients (12.46 mm/h vs. 21.5 mm/h, p = 0.0288). Blood type O UC patients had the highest ESR level compared with non-O groups (p = 0.0228) (Table 3). We analysed the characteristics of UC patients between the diagnostic age older or younger than 40 years. However, there were no significant difference between two age groups (Table 4). Conclusion ABO blood groups were not associated with the prevalence of UC, although UC patients with blood type A had the higher prevalence in our current study compared with the general populations with blood type A. UC patients with blood type O had higher baseline ESR level. UC patients with blood type A had higher baseline hemoglobin level.