H Duarte et al. JGPN 2024; 78: 623–633. Diagnosis change in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease

This was a retrospective study using the ICN registry. Key findings:

• Overall, 6.1% of 18,055 patients aged 1–20 years changed diagnosis.
• Ulcerative colitis was reclassified in 347/4758 (7.3%).
• Crohn’s disease was reclassified in 257/12,178 (2.1%)
• IBD-U was reclassified in 495/1119 (44.2%)

My take: This study showed that a change in diagnosis to Crohn’s disease was the most common reclassification. While the study did not find that a younger age specifically increased the risk of a diagnosis change, it is noted that IBD-U diagnosis was utilized more frequently in children less than 11 years of age.

Of course, this study will be useless when we no longer utilize the terms Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis. ‘”‘The concept of IBD as two diseases, Crohn’s disease and UC, is flawed; there are more than 200 susceptibility genes for inflammatory bowel disease'”‘ (see post: Dr. Joel Rosh: Positioning Therapies for Pediatric Ulcerative Colitis)

Related blog posts:

• Crohn’s Disease Diagnosis Identified After Colectomy in Presumed Ulcerative Colitis
• Paris Classification of Pediatric Crohn’s Disease
• Validated SEMA-CD Score For Crohn’s Disease
• VEO-IBD -Useful “Position” Paper is Really a Review