Epidemiology of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in the Songpa-Kangdong District, Seoul, Korea.

Inclusion Criteria12

• Definite cases of CD and UC
• Patients are diagnosed with CD if they meet at least 2 of the following criteria:
• clinical history of abdominal pain, weight loss, malaise, diarrhea, and/or rectal bleeding
• endoscopic findings of mucosal cobblestoning, linear ulceration, skip areas, or perianal disease
• radiologic findings of stricture, fistula, mucosal cobblestoning, or ulceration
• macroscopic appearance of bowel wall induration, mesenteric lymphadenopathy, and "creeping fat" at laparotomy
• pathologic findings of transmural inflammation and/or epithelioid granulomas
• Only patients who meet these criteria for at least 2 months are included.
• Patients are diagnosed with UC only if all 3 of the following criteria are present
• a typical history of diarrhea or blood and pus or both in the stool for longer than 4 weeks
• a typical sigmoidoscopic or colonoscopic picture with diffusely granular, friable, or ulcerated mucosa without rectal sparing or skip lesions or radiological signs of characteristic continuous granular or ulcerated mucosa
• characteristic histopathological signs of inflammation on biopsy