Researchers followed patients at three sites across the country. Patients with suspected non-constipation-predominant IBS (n = 466) underwent colonoscopy with rectosigmoid biopsies, and healthy controls (n = 451) underwent colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening or polyp surveillance, according to the study.
The IBS patients were younger and more commonly female than the controls. Researchers found that the most common lesions in the IBS patients were hemorrhoids, polyps and diverticulosis, and they had a lower incidence of adenomas and diverticulosis than the control group. IBS patients had a higher incidence of mucosal erythema or ulceration, according to the study.
Researchers concluded that IBS did not necessarily correlate with structural abnormalities found during colonoscopy when compared with healthy controls.
Read the study on IBS and colonoscopy.
