Clinical Characteristics of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Thailand: A 16 Years Review
Rungsun Rerknimitr MD*, Olarn Chalapipat MD*, Pradermchai Kongkam MD*, Pinit Kullavanijaya MB, ChB, FACG*
Affiliation : * Gastroenterology Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine. Chulalongkorn University
Objective : Inflammatory bowel disease is an uncommon gastrointestinal problem in Asia. Recently, there have
been many reports from Japan and India demonstrating a higher incidence of this disease entity in this region.
To date, there has been only one report from Thailand regarding clinical manifestation of ulcerative colitis.
However, information regarding Crohn’s disease has never been demonstrated.
Materials and Methods : The authors retrospectively reviewed clinical data on both ulcerative colitis (UC) and
Crohn’s disease (CD) during a 16 year period from the medical records of King Chulalongkorn Memorial
Hospital, one of the main referral centers in Thailand.
Results : There were 55 patients diagnosed as inflammatory bowel disease. Of these, 45 were diagnosed as UC
and the rest were CD. Mean age of UC and CD patients was 32 and 40.5 years respectively. The authors did not
find any significant relationship between smoking and colonic cancer in these patients. The main presenta-
tions of UC patients were mucous bloody diarrhea and watery diarrhea whereas watery diarrhea, fever and
weight loss were the main presentations of patients with CD. There were fistulas in 2 CD patients. In addition,
oral ulcer and panuveitis were diagnosed in 2 different CD patients. One UC patient had PSC (primary
sclerosing cholangitis) and another had pyoderma gangrenosum. The majority of UC presented as pancolitis
(46.7%) while ileocolic involvement was more common in CD (60%)
Conclusion : In Thailand, UC is more common than CD whereas disease involvement is more localized to
ileocolic region in CD than UC. Similar to Western countries, both UC and CD are presented at relatively
young age.
Keywords : Thailand, Ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease
