Approved research

The Cardiometabolic Consequences of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Crohn's Disease

Lay summary

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an autoimmune disease of the gastrointestinal tract that is increasingly recognized as a chronic disease associated with a major impact on the quality of life of patients as well as associated with considerable costs for the society due to the need for hospitalizations, surgeries as well as expensive therapies. With improvements in therapies, IBD is now increasingly recognized as a lifelong chronic inflammatory illness similar to rheumatoid arthritis. Recent studies have highlighted the increased risk of cardiovascular diseases among patients with IBD. Our group has demonstrated an increased risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) among Crohn's disease patients using MRI of the liver. We have additionally developed a clinical score to predict NAFLD among Crohn's disease patients. This proposal aims to validate that predictive score in the UK biobank cohort subcohort of IBD patients with an MRI abdomen then apply the score to the larger cohort of all IBD patients in the biobank and study the association between NAFLD in IBD and cardiometabolic outcomes among the IBD patients in the UK Biobank. This research would have a major impact in identifying NAFLD among IBD patients as well as highlighting the importance of identifying NAFLD in terms of its association with cardiometabolic outcomes among IBD patients.