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Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may have persistent symptoms after complete endoscopic healing. In clinical practice, these symptoms are often thought to represent an overlap between IBD and irritable bowel syndrome, but they could reflect disturbances in motility or other gastrointestinal functions caused by fibrosis from IBD.
To determine if histological activity explains the persistence of symptoms after endoscopic healing, investigators conducted a retrospective analysis of 103 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) from the EMBARK trial (Am J Gastroenterol 2013; 108:1891). The researchers examined the association between patient-reported symptoms (rectal bleeding and stool frequency) and the presence of inflammation, as de…