炎症性肠病

Inflammatory bowel disease (or IBD) is a group of chronic idiopathic, relapsing and remitting disorders that cause inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract.^1–3Although it was traditionally regarded as a disease of westernised nations, IBD is becoming a global disease at the turn of the 21st century.² It impacts every aspect of the affected individual's life⁴ and accounts for substantial costs to the health care system and society.⁴

Over 3.5 million people affected in the Western world

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The prevalence of IBD in the Western world is up to 0.5% of the general population²

1. Ng SC, et al. Lancet. 2018;390(10114):2769–2778.
2. Kaplan, GG. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2015;12:720–727.

Multifactorial Disease

Imbalance of Intestinal Microbiota Causitive & aggravating factors

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1. Khor B, et al. Nature. 2011;474(7351):307–317.
2. Russell R. Postgrad Med J. 2001;77(904):82–88.
3. Bjarnason I, et al. Pharmacol Ther. 1994;62(1–2):145–157.
4. Mokhtarifar A, et al. Middle East J Dig Dis. 2013;5(2):93–97.
5. Ni J, et al. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2017;14(10):573–584.
6. Ananthakrishnan AN, et al. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2018;15(1):39–49

Although, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease differ in location and depth of inflammation, they share similar symptoms.⁷ In general, the symptoms depend on the segment of the intestinal tract involved.⁸ Symptoms related to inflammatory damage in the gastrointestinal tract include diarrhoea (characterised by stools with mucus or blood, nocturnal diarrhoea or incontinence), constipation, pain or rectal bleeding with bowel movement, bowel movement urgency, tenesmus, abdominal cramps and pain, nausea and vomiting.^8,9 If you have IBD you are at higher risk of also having iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia. Indeed, anaemia is the most common non-intestinal symptom of IBD10.

1. Ungaro R, et al. Lancet. 2017;389(10080):1756–1770.
2. Magro F, et al. J Crohns Colitis. 2017;11(6):649–670.
3. Torres J, et al. Lancet. 2017;389(10080):1741–1755.