title: Long-term Clinical Course of Post-infectious Irritable Bowel Syndrome After Shigellosis: A 10-year Follow-up Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A limited number of studies are available regarding the long-term natural history of post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome (PI-IBS). We aimed to investigate the long-term clinical course of PI-IBS.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective cohort study was conducted from a 2001 shigellosis outbreak in a Korean hospital with about 2000 employees. A cohort of 124 hospital employees who were infected by Shigella sonnei due to contaminated food in the cafeteria, and 105 sex- and age-matched, non-infected, controls were serially followed for their bowel symptoms by questionnaire surveys for 10 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Shigella -infected cohort showed significantly higher odds ratio for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) at 1-year (11.90; 95% CI, 1.49-95.58) and 3-year (3.93; 95% CI, 1.20-12.86) follow-up, compared to their controls. However, corresponding odds ratio for PI-IBS was not significantly increased at 5-year (1.88; 95% CI, 0.64-5.54) and 8-year (1.87; 95% CI, 0.62-5.19) follow-up. At 10-year follow-up survey, the prevalence of IBS was similar for the Shigella -infected cohort and their controls (23.3% versus 19.7%, P = 0.703). Risk factors which were independently associated with PI-IBS among the Shigella -infected cohort included younger age, previous history of functional bowel disorder, and longer duration of diarrhea at baseline.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients who were infected by Shigella sonnei experienced significantly increased risk of IBS until 3 years after shigellosis, and modestly increased risk until 8 years, but showed similar risk of IBS with uninfected controls at 10 years post-infection. PI-IBS is quite a chronic disorder, and follows a long-term natural course.
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Young Hoon
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Youn
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyeon Chang
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun Chul
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Jae Jun
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Jie-Hyun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyojin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Park
keywords: Cohort; Dysentery; Irritable bowel syndrome; Prognosis; Shigella