University Children's Hospital, Section of Paediatric Gastroenterology, University of Leipzig, Liebigstr. 20a, 04305 Leipzig, Germany.
J Crohns Colitis. 2009 Dec;3(4):277-81. doi: 10.1016/j.crohns.2009.07.001. Epub 2009 Aug 6.
Indeterminate colitis (IC) remains an enigmatic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) phenotype. It is currently not clear whether it constitutes merely a problem of terminology, classification, or possibly an early stage of IBD distinct from Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC).
We analysed epidemiological data of studies comparing IC, UC and CD. We selected 14 studies investigating paediatric patients (10 prospective and 4 retrospective) and 18 studies investigating adult IBD patients (11 prospective and 7 retrospective) for this analysis.
Compared to adults (n=15,776) the frequency of IC is higher in children (n=6262) (children 12.7% versus adults 6.0%, p<0.0001). This difference between children and adults has been detected irrespective whether prospective or retrospective studies were selected. In both, children and adults IC was more frequent in prospective studies compared to retrospective studies (children p=0.0004; adults p=0.0024).
IC has been detected in a substantial proportion of paediatric patients with IBD. IC is more frequently found in children compared to adults. Further studies are required to clarify whether IC represents an IBD phenotype associated with childhood disease onset or whether the high IC frequency is due to difficulties in establishing a UC or CD diagnosis.
不确定结肠炎（IC）仍然是一种神秘的炎症性肠病（IBD）表型。目前尚不清楚它仅仅是一个术语、分类的问题，还是可能是一种不同于克罗恩病（CD）和溃疡性结肠炎（UC）的 IBD 早期阶段。
我们分析了比较 IC、UC 和 CD 的研究的流行病学数据。我们选择了 14 项研究，这些研究调查了儿科患者（10 项前瞻性和 4 项回顾性）和 18 项研究调查了成人 IBD 患者（11 项前瞻性和 7 项回顾性）进行这项分析。
与成人（n=15776）相比，儿童（n=6262）中 IC 的频率更高（儿童 12.7%，成人 6.0%，p<0.0001）。无论选择前瞻性研究还是回顾性研究，都发现了儿童和成人之间的这种差异。在儿童和成人中，前瞻性研究中 IC 的频率高于回顾性研究（儿童 p=0.0004；成人 p=0.0024）。
在相当一部分患有 IBD 的儿科患者中发现了 IC。与成人相比，IC 在儿童中更为常见。需要进一步研究以阐明 IC 是否代表与儿童发病相关的 IBD 表型，或者 IC 的高频率是否是由于难以确定 UC 或 CD 诊断所致。
