title: Inflammatory bowel disease unclassified.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are idiopathic, chronic, and inflammatory intestinal disorders. The two main types, ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), sometimes mimic each other and are not readily distinguishable. The purpose of this study was to present a series of hospitalized cases, which could not initially be classified as a subtype of IBD, and to try to note roles of the terms indeterminate colitis (IC) and inflammatory bowel disease unclassified (IBDU) when such a dilemma arises.
  
  
  METHODS
  Medical records of 477 patients hospitalized due to IBD, during the period of January 2002 to April 2009, were retrospectively studied in the present paper. All available previous biopsies from endoscopies of these patients were reanalyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-seven of 477 IBD patients (5.7%) had been initially diagnosed as having IBDU. Of them, 23 received colonoscopy and histological examinations in our hospital. A total of 90% (9/10) and 66.7% (4/6) of patients, respectively, had a positive finding via wireless capsule endoscopy (CE) and double-balloon enteroscopy (DBE). The barium-swallow or small bowel follow-through (SBFT) was performed on 11 patients. Positive changes were observed under computer tomographic (CT) scanning in 89.5% (17/19) of patients. Reasonable treatment strategies were employed for all patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data indicate that IBDU accounts for 5.7% of initial diagnoses of IBD. The definition of IBDU is valuable in clinical practice. For those who had no clear clinical, endoscopic, histological, or other features affording a diagnosis of either UC or CD, IBDU could be used parenthetically.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, the First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Wei-xing
authors.initials: WX
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Shao-hua
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Cheng-fu
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: You-ming
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000714:Anastomosis, Surgical; D001706:Biopsy; D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000175:diagnosis; D003113:Colonoscopy; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000175:diagnosis; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D019804:Mesalamine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008875:Middle Aged; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones; D019804:Mesalamine