Prevalence of hepatobiliary manifestations in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Introduction and Objectives

This study aimed to analyze the prevalence of hepatobiliary manifestations in patients diagnosed with chronic nonspecific ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), in a tertiary care hospital in Mexico.

Materials and Methods

A retrospective observational study was conducted based on clinical records of patients diagnosed with UC or Crohn's disease who attended the Gastroenterology service of the Centro Medico Nacional La Raza in the period from 2017 to 2022 in the gastroenterology. The data was collected from the clinical file. Means and standard deviation were used for the analysis of quantitative variables, and frequencies (percentages) were used for qualitative variables.

Results

A sample of one hundred and twenty-two patients (56.5% were men and 43.4% were women) was analyzed, of which 87 (71.3%) corresponded with a diagnosis of UC and 35 (28.7%) with a diagnosis of CD. Hepatobiliary manifestations were found in 27 patients (22%), with steatosis (9%) and PSC (5.6%) being the most frequent. Only in one patient, two simultaneous manifestations were found (HAI and PSC). Thirty-eight patients presented alterations in hepatic biochemical tests, of which 29% did not correspond to any known hepatic complication at that time. (Figure 1).

Discussion

Although the best-described manifestation in IBD is PSC, in our study, they stand out because a considerable percentage of patients present alterations in hepatic biochemical tests or in imaging studies, which are not related to a known hepatobiliary pathology and which may be of multifactorial etiology.

Conclusions

The prevalence of hepatobiliary alterations in IBD is considerable, which is why clinical, biochemical and imaging studies monitoring are required periodically to perform the appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in a timely manner.

Funding

The resources used in this study were from the hospital without any additional financing

Declaration of interest

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.