Prevalenza della colelitiasi in una serie consecutiva di pazienti con malattie infiammatorie croniche intestinali

In 1969 Heaton el al. documented an increase of 4-5 times in the prevalence of cholelithiasis (GD) in patients with Crohn s disease (CD). These data were later confirmed by several Authors, but the mechanisms involved are controversal. Only three studies reported the prevalence of gallstones disease in ulcerative colitis (UC) and they gave controversial results as well. The aim of our study was to look at the prevalence of cholelithiasis in a consecutive series of patiens with CD and UC and to evaluate the possible risk factors involved. These results represent preliminary data for the first study about the incidence of GD and IBD. We included 412 patients with CD and 183 with UC, performed an abdominal US and evaluated several parameters as possible risk factors. We calculated the OR and the 95% CI by the regression logistic models after adjustment for the considered variables. The prevalence of GD was 9% in CD and 7 % in UC. Female sex and a high BMI did not correlate with an increase of GD. Older age was a risk factor for CD but not for UC. Previous bowel resections represent a risk factor for both CD an UC and, in particular, ileal resection was strongly associated with an increase of GD in CD. A number of hospitalizations > 3 and a cumulative number of days of hospitalization > 40 resulted to be a risk factor for CD and UC.