Takayasu arteritis, ulcerative colitis co-occurrence rate high

(HealthDay)—Takayasu arteritis (TAK) has a high rate of co-occurrence and genetic overlap with ulcerative colitis (UC), according to a study published in the August issue of Arthritis & Rheumatology.

Chikashi Terao, M.D., Ph.D., from the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan, and colleagues examined 470 patients with TAK from 14 institutions. They analyzed clinical manifestations and genetic components to characterize patients with TAK and UC. Genetic overlap between the diseases was assessed by using UC susceptibility single-nucleotide polymorphisms to compare risk directions and effect sizes.

The researchers found that 6.4 percent of patients with TAK had UC, which was considerably higher than expected from the prevalence of UC in Japan. Compared with TAK patients without UC, patients with TAK complicated by UC developed TAK at an earlier stage of life; they also showed significant enrichment of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B*52:01 (odds ratio, 12.14). The 110 non-HLA UC susceptibility markers significantly displayed common risk directions with TAK susceptibility; they also displayed significant departure of permutation P values from expected P values.

"UC is a major complication of TAK," the authors write. "These two diseases share a significant proportion of their genetic background, and HLA-B*52:01 may play a central role in their co-occurrence."

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