EC Gastroenterology and Digestive System

Endoscopy has a main role in managing UC. The purpose of our work is to assess the severity in UC using the UCEIS score and to identify its main predictive parameters of clinical severity. Our retrospective, descriptive and analytical study was conducted in a period of 8 years including 320 patients followed for Ulcerative Colitis. The endoscopic severity of the disease was assessed by the UCEIS score and clinical activity by the Truelove and Witts score.

The location was distal in 19.56%, left in 23.91% and pancolitis in 56.52%. Clinically, 21.9% of patients were in mild flare, 57.72% were in moderate flare and 19.71% were in severe flare. The 3-endpoint study of the UCEIS score showed an absent vascular frame in 66.23% of the patients, decreased in 27.27% and normal in 6.49%. Bleeding was absent in 46.8%, mucous membranes in 42.9%, scanty luminal in 37.7% of the cases and profuse in only 1.3% of patients. Ulcers were absent in 18.2% of cases, less than 5 mm in 37.7% of cases, more than 5 mm in 19.5% of patients and deep in 24.7%. In total, 6.5% of patients were in endoscopic remission, 33.8% were in mild flare, 49.4% were in moderate flare, and 3.9% were in severe flare. In multivariate analysis, vascular weft decrease and ulceration are correlated to the clinic with p = 0.038; OR = 7.2; IC = 95% [0.8 - 8.11] and p = 0.049, OR = 1.9; IC = 95% [1 - 3.6] respectively. The UCEIS endoscopic score is a reliable tool for assessing the severity of UC thrust, it is the only validated score for detecting endoscopic lesions of severity.

Keywords: Ulcerative Colitis; UCEIS; Severity; Diagnosis

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