Triggers of histologically suspected drug-induced colitis

BACKGROUNDDrug toxicity is a common and even serious problem in the gastrointestinal tract that is thought to be caused by a broad spectrum of agents.Although withdrawal of the causative agent would cure the disease knowledge is scarce and mostly derives from case reports and series. AIMTo investigate potential triggers of drug-induced colitis (DiC). METHODSWe conducted a retrospective, observational case control study.Patients were assigned to DiC or one of two age-and gender-matched control groups (noninflammatory controls and inflammatory colitis of another cause) based on histopathological findings.Histopathology was reassessed in a subset of patients (28 DiC with atherosclerosis, DiC without atherosclerosis and ischaemic colitis each) for validation purposes.Medical history was collected from the electronic database and patient records.Statistical analysis included chi-squared test, t-test, logistic and multivariate regression models. RESULTSDrug-induced colitis was detected in 211 endoscopically sampled biopsy specimens of the colon mucosa (7% of all screened colonoscopic biopsy samples); a total of 633 patients were included equally matched throughout the three groups (291 males, mean age: 62.1 ± 16.1 years).In the univariate analysis, DiC was associated with diuretics, dihydropyridines, glycosides, ASS, platelet