This multicenter study is the first one on Iranian children with very early onset ulcerative colitis (UC) and one of the few studies about the effect of biological therapy in children with UC under 7 years of age.
Children with very early onset inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are diagnosed before 6 years of age.
The current study was performed on 14 children under 7 years of age with severe UC. Children with severe UC whose therapy with corticosteroid and azathioprine as conventional treatment had failed were treated with infliximab (IFX) and later with adalimumab (ADA).
Among the total 14 participants, 6 (43%) patients were female. Mean patient age was 4.9 years (range = 3-7 years), mean age at diagnosis was 3.4 years (range = 1.5-6 years), and mean duration of illness was 1.5 years. At the end of 54 weeks of therapy with IFX, 2 (14%) patients were in remission, 2 (14%) patients were mild, and 4 (29%) patients were moderate, with no secondary treatment failure (during the maintenance phase). A total of 6 (43%) patients had primary treatment failure (no response after 14 weeks of therapy). These patients were treated with ADA. At the end of 52 weeks of therapy, 3 (50%) of those 6 (100%) patients were referred for colectomy, 1 (17%) was in remission, and 2 (33%) patients had mild severity.
The current study has shown that IFX is a safe and effective therapy for children with very early onset UC. ADA may be effective in the treatment of children with UC who are refractory to IFX.