Prediction of flare-ups of ulcerative colitis using quantitative immunochemical fecal occult blood test

Table 1 Characteristics of the three types of patients according to the correlation between I-FOBT value and patient symptoms

	First type	Second type	Third type	P
n	44	19	15
Male/female	23/21	3/16	7/8	0.034a
Age (yr)	39 (18-79)	40 (16-66)	46 (27-70)	0.54b
Disease duration (yr)	9 (1-37)	9 (1-28)	8 (1-30)	0.88b
Disease extent
Pancolitis	23 (52)	8 (42)	9 (60)	0.22a
Left-side colitis	10 (23)	6 (32)	6 (40)
Proctitis	11 (25)	5 (26)	0 (0)
Total fecal samples	427	204	192
Submitted fecal samples/person	9 (4-20)	10 (4-19)	12 (6-26)	0.13b
I-FOBT result (ng/mL)c	9 (0-57 616)	486 (0-142 639)	189 (0-392 500)	< 0.0001b

Data are medians with ranges in parentheses or numbers with percentages in parentheses.

^aExact trend test;

^bKruskal-Wallis test;

^cMann-Whitney’s U test, 1st type vs 2nd type, P < 0.0001; 2nd type vs 3rd type, P = 0.021; 1st type vs 3rd type, P < 0.0001.