Metabolic Syndrome in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Real Relationship or Just a Coincidence

Background and aim: Presence of metabolic syndrome along with inflammatory diseases is being reported with increased frequency. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of metabolic syndrome in inflammatory bowel disease patients. Materials and methods: Fifty-one patients with ulcerative colitis, 34 patients with Crohn’s disease and 88 healthy controls were included in this study. All of the patients were in remission state. Subjects were classified as having the metabolic syndrome based on the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) and the modified World Health Organization (WHO) definition. Results: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in patients with ulcerative colitis was 16% according to the NCEP and 23.5% according to the WHO, and that in patients with Crohn’s disease was 8.8% according to the NCEP and 14.7% according to the WHO. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in control group was 18% according to the NCEP and 15.7% according to the WHO. When inflammatory bowel disease patients and control groups were compared with respect to the presence of metabolic syndrome, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups according to neither NCEP nor WHO. Conclusion: Although it is predicted that metabolic syndrome develops lesser since inflammatory bowel disease patients as they are considered to have lower body mass index, frequency of metabolic syndrome is not less than control group according to the results of our study. Therefore, possibility of metabolic syndrome in inflammatory bowel disease patients should not be overlooked and it should be considered that it can be used in patient follow-up. Abbreviations: IBD: Inflammatory bowel disease; CD: Crohn’s disease; UC: Ulcerative colitis; TNF: Tumor necrosis factor; RA: Rheumatoid arthritis; SLE: Systemic lupus erythematosus; CDAI: Crohn disease activity Index; BMI: Body mass index; CRP: C-reactive protein; ESR: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate; IR: Insulin resistance; EGIR: European group for the study of insulin Resistance; NCEP: National cholesterol education program; ACE: American college of cardiology; IDF: International diabetes federation.