INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE AND KIDNEY – IS THERE A CONECTION?

BACKGROUND/AIM: The aim of the present study was to investigate whether patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have some degree of renal involvement. Furthermore, we were investigated whether this connection is related to active bowel disease. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study 50 patients mean age 47.1±16.5 years with a diagnosis of IBD were recruited from September 2012 to September 2013. The diagnosis of IBD was based on clinical history, endoscopic, histological and radiological findings. Disease activity was assessed using the UC activity index (UCAI) for ulcerative colitis (UC), and CDAI for Crohn’s disease (CD). There were 38% patients with UC and 62% patients with CD. RESULTS: The prevalence of abnormal albuminuria in UC and CD patients was 21.1% and 29% respectively. There was a high negative correlation between duration of bowel disease and 24-h albuminuria in UC patients, as well as a high correlation among albumin creatinine ratio (ACR) and UCAI score in UC patients, but those correlations weren´t statistically significant, probably due to small number of UC patients. On the other hand, eGFR showed negative correlation with disease activity in CD patients (r=-0.569 ; p=0.05), while there was no statistically significant correlation between active UC and eGFR (r=0.343 ; p=NS). CONCLUSION: Abnormal albuminuria is quite frequent in patients with IBD. It seems that patients with IBD have some degree of glomerular damage, mainly those with CD. Collaborative, prospective studies of gastroenterologists and nephrologists that will investigated this association are needed.