Authors: Pimentel M, Chang M, Chow EJ, Tabibzadeh S, Kirit-Kiriak V, Targan SR, Lin HC.

Institution: GI Motility Program and Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, Department of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, CSMC Burns and Allen Research Institute, Los Angeles, California 90048, USA.

Objectives: Irritable bowel syndrome, a common gastrointestinal diagnosis, has not been clearly studied in inflammatory bowel disease. Some of the residual symptoms in subjects treated with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are thought to be related to irritable bowel syndrome. The aims of this study were 1) to describe the duration and nature of complaints before the diagnosis of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis (prodromal period), and 2) to determine the role of IBS in this prodromal period.

Methods: A total of 66 patients with confirmed inflammatory bowel disease were enrolled in the study. The subjects received a questionnaire to ascertain the nature and duration of symptoms preceding the diagnosis of Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, including features described under the Rome criteria for irritable bowel syndrome.

Conclusion: There is a significant prodromal period before the time of diagnosis of Crohn's disease that is not found in ulcerative colitis even after exclusion of subjects with IBS.

Study link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11151877&dopt=Citation

• Quality of Life in Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Remission: the Impact of IBS-like Symptoms and Associated Psychological Factors
• Identification of a Prodromal Period in Crohn's Disease but not Ulcerative Colitis
• Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Separate or Unified?
• Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome