ABSTRACT
Background: To evaluate relation between air pollution and rate of flare and hospital admission among inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] patients
Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, during a 10 months period, the number and average duration of hospitalization of patients admitted in GI ward due to IBD flare were recorded in an industrial capital city. Concomitantly the level of 4 major air pollutants including SO[2], CO, NO[2] and O[3] measured and the correlation between severity of IBD flare and air pollution determined by Pearson correlation coefficient
Results: Average number of admission was 7 patients per month [1-12]. This figure for Crohn's disease [CD] was 2.9 and 3.7 for ulcerative colitis [UC]. The average duration of hospitalization for UC and CD were 2.8 days [1-13] and 2.9 days [1-22] respectively. After comparison of average concentration of 4 major air pollutants with rate of IBD flare, there was a relation, although non-meaningful, between CO concentration and number and duration of admissions due to UC flare [p=0.135 and 0.08, correlation coefficient 0.196 and 0.251 respectively]. DATA analysis did not reveal any significant relation between SO[2] and NO[2] and the rate of admission due to IBD flare [p>0.05] and Interestingly there were a reverse meaningful correlation between concentration of O[3] and number and duration of admissions due to Crohn's disease flare [p=0.016 and 0.006, Correlation Coefficient-0.338 and -0.413 respectively]
Conclusion: It seems that CO as one of the major air pollutants can aggravates course of ulcerative colitis and on the other hand O[3] could have a potential protective effect on Crohn's disease. This issue should further be clarified in future studies