Clinical features of nongangrenous ischemic colitis. A comparison of stricturing and transient forms.

Forty cases of nongangrenous ischemic colitis were studied to find the different clinical features between stricturing form and transient form. Clinical and laboratory findings were compared between two groups, 15 cases of stricturing form and 25 of transient form, which were diagnosed by follow-up barium enema radiography. The following four items, of the nine studied, were significantly different between the two groups; namely, patients of stricturing form were older in age, had longer time intervals from the onset of disease to disappearance of subjective symptoms and to normalization of white blood cell count and/or erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and showed an increase in 1-h erythrocyte sedimentation rate on day 5 or earlier of the disease. Our observations indicate that the age and 1-h erythrocyte sedimentation rate might be useful indicators to differentiate the stricturing and transient forms early after the onset of the disease.