Evaluation of bacterial biomarkers to aid in challenging inflammatory bowel diseases diagnostics and subtype classification

Table 1 Sample size and clinical characteristics of subjects

		Healthy1	Irritable bowel syndrome	IBD		Colorectal cancer	P value3
				Ulcerative colitis	Crohn’s disease
	n (patients)	31	10	25	45	20
Cohort of subjects for biopsies samples collection	Age (mean ± SD, yr)	48.1 ± 16.3	42.4 ± 11.4	40.1 ± 15.8	33.5 ± 11.1	58.6 ± 7.52	< 0.0014
	Male, n (%)	16 (51.6)	2 (20.0)	16 (64.0)	26 (57.7)	14 (70.0%)	0.6056
	Active, n (%)	NA	NA	20 (80.0)	28 (62.2)	NA	0.1005
	Treatment, n (%)2
	No treatment	NA	NA	16 (64.0)	17 (37.8)		NA
	Moderate immunosuppressant	NA	NA	3 (12.0)	17 (37.8)		NA
	Anti-TNFα	NA	NA	4 (16.0)	10 (22.2)		NA
	UC location, n (%)2						NA
	Ulcerative proctitis (E1)	NA	NA	6 (24.0)	NA	NA
	Distal UC (E2)	NA	NA	11 (44.0)	NA	NA
	Extensive UC or ulcerative pancolitis (E3)	NA	NA	6 (24.0)	NA	NA
	CD location, n (%)2						NA
	Ileal-CD (L1)	NA	NA	NA	19 (42.2)	NA
	Colonic-CD (L2)	NA	NA	NA	11 (24.4)	NA
	Ileocolonic-CD (L3)	NA	NA	NA	14 (31.1)	NA
Cohort of subjects for faecal samples collection	n (patients)			10	19
	Age (mean ± SD, yr)			47.4 ± 18.3	43.5 ± 18.3		0.4294
	Male, n (%)			5 (50.0)	10 (52.6)		0.8936
	Active, n (%)2			1 (10)	7 (36.8)		0.1855
	Treatment, n (%)2	NA	NA	5 (50)	5 (26.3)	NA
	No treatment	NA	NA	1 (10)	2 (10.5)	NA
	Moderate immunosuppres-sant	NA	NA	3 (30)	12 (63.2)	NA
	Anti-TNFα
	UC location, n (%)2						NA
	Distal UC (E2)			3 (30.0)	NA
	Extensive UC or ulcerative pancolitis (E3)			7 (70.0)	NA
	CD location, n (%)
	Ileal-CD (L1)			NA	10 (52.6)		NA
	Colonic-CD (L2)			NA	3 (15.8)
	Ileocolonic-CD (L3)			NA	6 (31.6)

¹Controls consisted of subjects who underwent colonoscopy for different reasons: 9/31 rectal bleeding, 11/31 colorectal cancer familial history and 11/31 abdominal pain.

²Maximal disease extent at the time of sampling was available in 23/25 UC patients (cohort for biopsy samples), 4/10 UC patients (cohort for faecal samples), 44/45 CD patients. Activity status in the cohort that provided faecal samples was available for 4/10 UC patients and 11/19 CD patients. Treatment at sampling for the fecal sample’s cohort was recorded for 9/10 UC patients, and for biopsy sample’s cohort in 23/23 UC and 44/45 CD participants.

³Groups were compared by non-parametric statistical tests, and P value ≤ 0.05 was considered significant.

⁴Kruskal-Wallis.

⁵ Mann-Whitney U test or

⁶χ² test as required. IBD: Inflammatory bowel disease; IBS: Irritable bowel syndrome; CRC: Colorectal cancer; TNF: Tumour necrosis factor; NA: Not applicable.

Table 2 Biopsy samples by conditions and locations

	No. Patients	No. biopsies
		Terminal ileum	Transverse colon	Rectum	Unknown region	Total
H	31	14	24	10	0	48
IBS	10	1	3	3	12	19
CRC	20		3	17	0	20
UC	25	11	23	16	0	50
Location
Ulcerative proctitis (E1)	6	4	5	5	0	14
Distal UC (E2)	11	3	11	8	0	22
Extensive UC or ulcerative pancolitis (E3)	6	3	6	1	0	10
CD	45	16	31	16	0	63
Location
Ileal-CD (L1)	19	5	13	7	0	25
Colonic-CD (L2)	11	6	7	4	0	17
Ileocolonic-CD (L3)	14	4	10	4	0	18

H: Healthy controls; IBS: Irritable bowel syndrome; CRC: Colorectal cancer; UC: Ulcerative colitis; CD: Crohn’s disease.