Predictors of Prognosis in IBD Patients

A study of clinical characteristics and potential prognostic factors in inflammatory bowel disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic and relapsing inflammatory disease composed of two types: Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). It is difficult to cure the IBD completely and patients with clinical or endoscopic remission can worsen again. Therefore, predicting the prognosis of patients with IBD is still challenging. Endoscopic biopsied samples and blood samples from IBD patients and non-IBD controls have been collected and the expression levels of multiple markers which are associated with disease activity and severity will be assessed. The correlation between expression levels of multiple markers and prognosis will be evaluated.

Inclusion Criteria: * control group: Patients who do not have colitis, cancer, and advanced polyp (the number of polyps ≥ 3, the size of polyps ≥ 1cm, high-grade adenoma, villous adenoma) * TNF-α inhibitor-naive IBD group: IBD patients who do not have a history of TNF-α inhibitor treatment * TNF-α inhibitor-treated IBD group: IBD patients who are treated with TNF-α inhibitor Exclusion Criteria: * Age under 18 years * Patients who were treated with antibiotics or probiotics within the last 3 months