OBJECTIVES

Differentiation of Crohn disease (CD) from ulcerative colitis (UC) is challenging when inflammation is predominantly colonic. The paediatric inflammatory bowel disease (PIBD) classes algorithm was developed to bring consistency to labelling, but used physician-assigned diagnosis as the criterion standard. We aimed to reassess the PIBD classes using pathology of subsequently resected colon as the criterion standard.

METHOD

Single-centre study of patients diagnosed with colonic IBD between 2002 and 2017 and subsequently treated with colectomy. Baseline pretreatment data were reviewed and the PIBD classes algorithm was independently applied by 2 reviewers to assign a label of UC/IBD-unclassified (IBD-U)/colonic-CD. Concordance between the algorithm-based, precolectomy clinical, and pathologic examination of resected colon diagnosis were assessed. Changes in diagnosis during postcolectomy follow-up were recorded.

RESULTS

Sixty-two children underwent colectomy for medically refractory colonic IBD. Diagnosis based on pathologic review of resected colon CD:4;UC:56;IBDU:2. The clinical, PIBD classes algorithm, and colectomy diagnoses were concordant in 51 of 62 patients (81%, Fleiss kappa 0.48). Precolectomy clinical diagnosis was concordant with colectomy diagnosis in 58 of 62 patients (94%, weighted-kappa 0.65). The PIBD classes label was concordant with colectomy diagnosis in 51 of 62 patients (82%, weighted-kappa 0.38); resected colon pathology was typical of UC in 6 patients with PIBD classes label of IBD-U based on single class 2 feature and in 3 with PIBD classes label of CD based on single class 1 feature.

CONCLUSIONS

Concordance of PIBD classes algorithm diagnosis applied before colectomy with a diagnostic label based on pathologic examination of a subsequently resected colon is only fair. Caution is needed in stringent application of colonic CD and IBD-U labels based on presence of single feature.