Study on the influencing factors of hospitalization in a long-term follow-up cohort of 123 patients with Crohn′s disease / 中华消化杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the influencing factors of hospitalization in patients with mild active Crohn′s disease or in clinical remission during long-term follow-up.Methods:This was a prospective cohort study. From August 5, 2013 to January 5, 2015, 123 patients with mild active Crohn′s disease or in clinical remission visited the Department of Gastroenterology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital were selected. The baseline information of all the patients were collected, including the general data such as age and gender, clinical data such as extra-intestinal manifestations, complications, efficacy of glucocorticoid usage, serum hypersensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP), serum albumin, and the total score and the subscore in systemic symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease questionnaire (IBDQ). All the patients were followed up for a long time till May 31, 2022 or the date of hospitalization due to the disease. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to define the optimal cut-off values of hsCRP and serum albumin for hospitalization prediction. Multivariate Cox regression model was used to analyze the influencing factors of hospitalization.Results:The median age of 123 patients was 32.0 years old (25.0 years old, 49.0 years old), 32.5% (40/123) were female, and 71 cases (57.7%) were hospitalized because of disease, and the median follow-up time was 29.2 months (9.0 months, 57.9 months). ROC analysis showed that the optimal cut-off value of hsCRP and serum albumin in predicting hospitalization because of disease in patients with Crohn′s disease was 1.5 mg/L and 40 g/L (both P<0.001), respectively.Multivariate Cox regression model showed that the extra-intestinal manifestations ( HR=1.869, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.014 to 3.443), complications ( HR=2.511, 95% CI 1.368 to 4.608), glucocorticoid dependence or refractory ( HR=1.958, 95% CI 1.128 to 3.396), serum hsCRP≥1.5 mg/L ( HR=2.116, 95% CI 1.111 to 4.029) and serum albumin≤40 g/L ( HR=3.040, 95% CI 1.716 to 5.386) were independent risk factors of hospitalization because of disease in patients with Crohn′s disease ( P=0.045, 0.003, 0.017, 0.023, and <0.001). However, IBDQ subscore in systemic symptoms ( HR=0.873, 95% CI 0.805 to 0.948) was an independent protective factor of hospitalization because of disease ( P=0.001). Conclusions:Patients with Crohn′s disease at remission stage or mild activity stage who have extra-intestinal manifestations, complications, glucocorticoid dependence or refractory, serum hsCRP≥1.5 mg/L or serum albumin≤40 g/L are at high risk of hospitalization because of disease, and should be given more active treatments and more frequent follow-up. Patients with higher IBDQ subscore in systemic symptoms are more likely to gain a long-term stable condition.