Prevalence of Pancreatic Steatosis in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients.

Objectives: Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic, immune-mediated disorders of the gastrointestinal system. Pancreas can be affected in IBD patients with a wide array of clinical conditions including acu-te pancreatitis, abnormalities of pancreatic duct and pancreatic insufficiency. Pancreatic steatosis (PS) is an important but often overlooked pathology of pancreas. In this study, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of PS in IBD patients to reveal the possible association in between in a patient group already prone to pancreatic disease involvement.

Methods: This retrospective study included 153 IBD patients who had a computed tomography scan in the last five years to evaluate the presence of PS. PS was defined as a pancreas/spleen attenuation ratio of below 0.70 in accordance with previous studies available in the literature. Demographic data, IBD subtype and treatment modality used for IBD were recorded and analyzed.

Results: 78 patients had Crohn's disease and 75 patients had ulcerative colitis. Presence of PS in IBD patients was 23.5%. Age and treatment modality were found to be related to PS presence. Logistic regression analysis revealed a statistically significant relationship between PS and advanced age (p=0.000) but not with treatment modality (p=0.290).

Conclusion: PS is an important pathology of the pancreas with serious complications. In an already burdensome disease like IBD, PS can add more challenges to patient management. Although a direct correlation between PS and IBD prognosis is not established in current literature, evaluation of IBD patients for PS will help in prevention and management of PS-related conditions which will improve the overall well-being of IBD patients.