Poster at ACG Shares Good News for Patients with Ulcerative Colitis

Ulcerative colitis, one of the two major types of inflammatory bowel disease, affects about 1 million people in the US. Somewhat more common in women than in men, its age of onset peaks at 15 to 25 years of age and then again at 55 to 65 years. Although the cause is unknown for this chronic illness, it can have a profound emotional and social impact on those affected.

So what can you do help your patients?  Dr. Nabeel Khan, Assistant Professor of Medicine in Gastroenterology & Hepatology at Tulane Medical Center, and colleagues explored the natural history of systemic corticosteroid therapy in ulcerative colitis in a nationwide retrospective cohort from the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System. Their data are being presented at the American College of Gastroenterology’s 2012 Annual Scientific Meeting in Las Vegas, and he joins us here to shed some light on this topic.