Clinical expression of inflammatory bowel diseases--a retrospective population-based cohort study; Vukovarsko-Srijemska County, Croatia, 2010.

Clinical characteristics of the cohort of 150 patients with inflammatory bowel diseases, ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), Vukovarsko-Srijemska County, Croatia, were retrospectively assessed. UC was clinically presented with frequent passage of bloody, slimy stools, while preferential symptoms of CD were fever, anemia and severe weight loss, differences reflecting longer duration of symptoms prior to the diagnosis, in patients with CD. The prevalent disease localisations, in patients with UC, were the rectum and the left colon and the anorectum, while the prevailing phenotype, in patients with CD, corresponded with younger adult age at disease onset, ileocolonic localization and stricturing disease behavior Intestinal complications, including perforation, fistula, abscess and ileus, were more prevalent in patients with CD. Of extraintestinal complications, only ankylosing spondylitis and erythema nodosum, reached marginally significant differences, in favor to patients with CD. Shortcomings of this study include the lack of associations and the time-dependent disease projections.