Association between ulcerative colitis and acute appendicitis - A Mendelian randomization study.

Abstract

Although the etiology of UC is not clear, some studies show that the appendix may be the starting point of UC, and the incidence of appendicitis is high in patients with UC. We performed a MR analysis to examine whether there is a potential causal relationship between UC and acute appendicitis. Our MR study revealed that the genetic liability of UC (OR, 0.9362; 95% CI 0.9014 - 0.9723; p = 0.00064) was associated with a decreased risk of acute appendicitis. More research is needed in the future to support our findings and better explain why UC reduces the risk of acute appendicitis.