Association Between Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Venous Leg Ulcers: Insight From Mendelian Randomization Analyses.

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to investigate the potential causal relationship between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and venous leg ulcers (VLU) using Mendelian randomization (MR).

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Independent genetic variants for IBD and VLU were selected as instruments from previously published genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in people of primarily European descent. MR analyses were carried out utilizing inverse-variance weighted (IVW), weighted median, MR Egger, simple mode, and weighted mode.

RESULTS

Genetically predicted IBD was not associated with VLU, according to the IVW analysis (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.88-1.03, p = 0.23). MR Egger (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.76-1.12, p = 0.44), weighted mode (OR 1.06, 95% CI 0.87-1.29, p = 0.55), simple mode (OR 1.03, 95% CI 0.79-1.34, p = 0.83), and weighted median (OR 0.99, 95% CI 0.89-1.10, p = 0.90) all produced results in line with IVW. According to the IVW technique, UC (OR 1.02, 95% CI 0.95-1.10, p = 0.62) and CD (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.90-1.04, p = 0.36) did not appear to be associated with VLU in subtype analyses.

CONCLUSION

The MR investigation found no genetic evidence to support a causal relationship between IBD and VLU. This finding clarifies that observed clinical associations are unlikely to be driven by shared genetics, and this genetic insight helps refine the clinical assessment of VLU in patients with IBD.