269 Results Study cohort characteristics Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics of the total study population (n = 138) are presented in Supplementary Table S1. The IBD study cohort consisted of 118 patients, of which 64 patients with CD and 54 patients with UC. For comparison, 20 healthy individuals (healthy controls, HC) were included in the study. IBD patients had a significantly lower mean age (CD: 43.8 ± 1.8 years; UC: 47.0 ± 2.0 years) as compared to healthy controls (56.1 ± 2.2 years), while no significant gender differences were observed (CD: 39 females (60.9%); UC: 26 females (48.1%); HC: 12 females (60.0%)). Further differences between CD and UC patients were largely related to disease-specific characteristics (Supplementary Table S1). For all IBD patients, different measures of disease activity were recorded and compared between CD and UC patients (Supplementary Table S2). As clinical disease activity index, the Harvey Bradshaw Index (HBI) was calculated for CD patients, whereas the Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index (SCCAI) was recorded for UC patients. Median HBI score was 8 points (IQR: 6 – 11) and median SCCAI score was 6 points (IQR: 4 – 8). Serum CRP levels and ESR (mm/h) were significantly higher in CD patients as compared to UC patients, whereas the latter group showed significantly higher levels of FC. Considering endoscopic disease activity, more CD patients fell into either remission (0 – 3 points) or mild (4 – 10 points) disease categories (CD: 47.2%; UC: 20.0%), whereas the majority of UC patients belonged to moderate (11 – 19 points) and severe (≥ 20 points) disease categories (UC: 80.0%; CD: 52.8%). Analysis of 10 inflammatory biomarkers in 118 IBD patients and 20 healthy controls Serum concentrations of 10 selected serum inflammatory biomarkers in IBD patients and healthy controls are presented in Table 1. In CD patients, four (4) out of 10 inflammatory biomarkers (CRP, SAA, IL-6 and IL-17A) showed significantly increased concentrations as compared to healthy controls (HC). Also, four (4) out of 10 biomarkers were significantly increased in UC compared to HC (SAA, IL-8, IL-10 and IL-17A), where SAA and IL-17A overlapped with CD. In addition, the levels of 6 inflammatory biomarkers were significantly different between CD and UC patients: levels of CRP, IFN-γ and IL-6 were significantly higher in CD, while IL-8, IL-10 and Eotaxin-1 levels were significantly higher in UC (Figure 1). No significant differences were observed for serum levels of TNF-α and Eotaxin-3 between CD, UC and HC. Predicting endoscopic disease activity in IBD
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