Endoscopic features and genetic background of inflammatory bowel disease complicated with Takayasu arteritis

Abstract

Background and aim: Takayasu arteritis (TA) is occasionally complicated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). This study assessed the endoscopic and genetic features of IBD complicated with TA (IBD-TA).

Methods: This study retrospectively reviewed the clinical charts of 142 TA patients (14 men and 128 women; median age 48.5 years [range, 18-97 years]). Human lymphocyte antigen (HLA) types and a single-nucleotide polymorphism rs6871626 in the IL12B gene were assessed in 101 and 81 patients with TA, respectively.

Results: Inflammatory bowel disease was diagnosed in 13 (9.2%) of the 142 patients. The endoscopic features of IBD-TA at initial diagnosis (n = 8) showed discontinuous and focal mucosal inflammations (n = 7, 87.5%), and only one case was diagnosed as ulcerative colitis (UC) at the first colonoscopy. In the genetic comparison of HLA class I between TA patients with IBD and those without IBD, HLA-B*52:01 and C*12:02 were more frequent in the IBD-TA group (P = 0.001 and P = 0.009, respectively). Meanwhile, HLA-DRB-1*15:02, DQA-1*01:03, DQB-1*06:01, and DPB-1*09:01 as HLA class II were positively associated with IBD-TA (P = 0.004, P = 0.019, P = 0.019, and P = 0.002, respectively). IL12B rs6871626 did not show an association with IBD-TA compared with that with TA without IBD.

Conclusions: The endoscopic findings of IBD-TA at initial diagnosis were atypical for UC or Crohn's disease. IBD-TA possessed the HLA haplotype, which had a susceptible effect on UC.

Keywords: Takayasu arteritis; endoscopic feature; genetic background; inflammatory bowel disease.