Appendix is a priming site in the development of ulcerative colitis

Table 1 Characteristics of patients with ulcerative colitis and normal subjects

	A-Pan	A-Lt	A-Lt/Ap	I-Pan	I-Lt	Normal subjects
Number of patients	15	25	10	14	22	27
Sex (M/F)	7/8	12/13	6/4	9/5	11/11	12/15
Age (yr)
Mean	36.4	40.3	35.5	41.4	50.7	43.6
Range	11-69	22-76	18-64	17-78	23-73	16-65
Medications
None	7	11	9	1	2	27
SASP	2	7	0	5	11	0
5-ASA	2	5	1	1	3	0
PDN	1	0	0	0	1	0
SASP+PDN	3	2	0	3	4	0
5-ASA+PDN	0	0	0	4	1	0

A-Pan, active pancolitis; A-Lt, active left-sided colitis; A-Lt/Ap, active left-sided colitis with appendiceal involvement; I-Pan, inactive pancolitis; I-Lt, inactive left-sided colitis; PDN, prednisolone; SASP, salazosulfapyridine; 5-ASA, mesalazine.