IBD Risk Seen in Liver Transplant Patients

Getting a liver transplant for primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) comes with an increased chance of getting inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) researchers reported at the American College of Gastroenterology Scientific Meeting in Honolulu, Oct. 16 to 21.

Mohamad Mouchi, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN said the risk factors and clinical course of de novo IBD following liver transplant is poorly understood.

With colleagues, Mouchi identified all Mayo patients with PSC who got transplant from 1984 through 2012.

Of 375 liver transplant patients with PSC, 77.7% already had IBD. They then looked at 84 patients who did not. They found that after transplant 22 of these patients developed IBD. Onset picked up steadily from 5.5% at the one year post-transplant mark to 25.4% at 10 years.

"Transplant-related immunosuppression may modify risk of de novo IBD," they concluded. The risk increased with mycophenolate mofetil, but it decreased with azathioprine.