Background and study aim: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic remitting relapsing disease affecting the colon. We aimed to study the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of UC patients in Aswan ‎governorate - south of Upper Egypt ‎.
Methods: ‎‎‎ Our study was a retrospective observational cross-sectional study including all patients who ‎attend the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) clinic of tropical medicine and gastroenterology ‎department- Aswan university hospital over the five years period from 2015 to 2020 in whom ‎the diagnosis of UC was confirmed by clinical, laboratory, endoscopic and histological ‎examinations‎‎.‎
Results: A total of 26 patients with established diagnosis of UC were included in this study. Their mean± ‎‎(SD) age at diagnosis was 30± (8.7) years. In our study the male: female ratio was 1.6:1. Only 4 ‎‎(15.4%) patients had positive family history of UC. Bleeding per rectum was the main ‎presenting symptom in 76.9%, most of the studied patients had no associated extra intestinal ‎manifestations at presentations; while arthralgia, oral ulcers, sacroiliitis or arthralgia and ‎sacroiliitis were associated symptoms in 7.6%, 3.8%, 11.5% or 3.8% of patients respectively. There was no statistically significant difference upon comparing laboratory data between the ‎two age groups (more or less than 40 years) or between positive and negative extra intestinal ‎manifestations. However, the level of fecal calprotectin and serum level of C-reactive protein ‎‎(CRP), Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), platelets (PLT) and white blood cells (WBCs) count ‎were raised with the increase in the clinical or endoscopic severity indices, while serum ‎albumin and hemoglobin were dropped‎‎.
Conclusion: Epidemiology and clinical characteristics of UC patients in Upper Egyptian population closely ‎resembled those of the Lower Egypt and Middle East. UC was more common in males and had ‎mild and distal pattern‎‎‎.