Patients with IBD have a higher risk for herpes zoster

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Patients with IBD have a higher risk for

herpes zoster

There may be an increased risk

of herpes zoster in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

This may be due to altered

immune function, especially among patients receiving immunosuppressive

medications.

Dr and colleagues from Pennsylvania performed a retrospective cohort study, and a nested

case-control study using 1988 to1997 data from the General Practice Research

Database.

In the cohort study, 7823

Crohn's disease, and 11,930 ulcerative colitis patients were evaluated on age,

sex, and primary care practice.

These patients were matched to

79,563 randomly selected controls without Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.

 In the nested case-control study, the

researchers assessed 185 Crohn's disease patients with zoster and 266

ulcerative colitis patients with zoster.

The researchers matched these

patients on sex and year of birth to 1787 IBD patients without zoster.

In the cohort study, the

research team found that the incidence of zoster was higher in patients with

Crohn's and ulcerative colitis vs their matched

controls.

The team noted that in the

nested case-control study, receipt of a prescription for corticosteroids or

azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine were associated with

zoster.

Dr ' team concludes,

“Patients with IBD, especially those on immunosuppressive medications,

are at higher risk for herpes zoster compared with the general

population.”

“Future studies should

clarify the relative risk associated with anti-tumor necrosis factor á

therapies.”

“The use of the new

zoster vaccine for patients with IBD also needs to be determined.”

Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 24 December 2006