Development of a blood-based early warning system for detecting biomarkers of multi-morbidity in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. A proof-of-concept study.

Summary

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are more likely to develop other diseases linked to inflammation; such as thyroid disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer. About three in every four IBD patients have an additional long-term condition. Patients with these other diseases have worse outcomes from their IBD. These patients are more likely to need intensive treatment and surgery. Unfortunately, these other inflammatory diseases are difficult to detect. By the time the patient shows symptoms, it is already causing harm.

We are developing a blood test to detect early signs of inflammatory disorders associated with IBD. This test will check for evidence of several diseases at the same time. This will allow patients developing other disorders to be reviewed and treated before symptoms develop. This would be a completely new and exciting way of preventing harm in the IBD patients.

This first step is to test the idea and will look for some of the more common IBD-linked diseases. We will investigate our ability to detect these diseases in the blood samples of IBD patients. We will compare our results with the same test performed in healthy people of the same age and gender.