Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Ischemic colitis (IC) is a disorder characterized by a decrease in blood flow of the large intestine. Many factors can contribute to decreased blood flow in the arteries supplying the large intestine, such as nonocclusive causes like hypertension and atherosclerosis and occlusive causes like embolism from myocardial infarction. With Ischemic colitis’s high mortality rate and its association with many cardiovascular diseases, it’s important to understand the comorbidities that might lead to these events. Diabetes is known to cause atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular events. Thus, Diabetes might play a role in the development of ischemic colitis. This study aims to find and assess comorbidities like diabetes associated with admission for ischemic colitis.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of adults with IC listed as the primary ED diagnosis from 2005 to 2014 using the Nationwide Readmission Database (NRD). The characteristics of the IC-related ED visits were analyzed.

Results: The estimated number of ED visits with a primary diagnosis of IC from 2005-2014 was 541,267 people. Our results showed that the mean age of the cohort was 62+/- 14 years, suggesting that most patients affected with ischemic colitis are elderly. 101,758 out of 541,267 ischemic colitis patients were found to have uncomplicated diabetes, amounting to 18.8% of the ischemic colitis population.

Conclusions: A notable comorbidity associated with ischemic colitis was uncomplicated Diabetes. Diabetes is marked by hyperglycemia, which can result in atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis may lead to hypoperfusion of organs and ultimately ischemic colitis. Constipation is not only the most common gastrointestinal symptom of diabetes, but most common precipitating factor of ischemic colitis in the elderly. Most of the patients affected with ischemic colitis are elderly, based on the results. Thus, uncomplicated diabetes may be regarded as a comorbidity associated with ischemic colitis, constipation being the resulting precipitating factor.