Differential diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease. A comparison of various diagnostic classifications.

Fifty consecutive patients with inflammatory bowel disease of the colon who presented at the University Hospital Rotterdam/Dijkzigt were assessed by four methods: clinical diagnosis, criteria defined by Lennard-Jones and by the Organisation Mondiale de Gastroenterologie (O.M.G.E.) scoring systems, and histologic slide review. All cases were classified into three diagnostic groups: established Crohn's disease (CD), indeterminate colitis, or definite ulcerative colitis (UC). The classifications were compared by kappa analysis. Eighteen of the 50 patients were classified as having established CD by the O.M.G.E. scoring system and Lennard-Jones criteria; 17 were so classified by clinicians, and only 8 by histologic slide review. The agreement among clinician's diagnosis, Lennard-Jones criteria, and the O.M.G.E. scoring system was good (Fleiss-Cohen-weighted kappa; p less than 0.001). Agreement among histology, Lennard-Jones criteria, and the O.M.G.E scoring system was less good (p less than 0.05) and not significantly associated with clinical diagnosis. Histology was less prone to diagnose established CD or established UC and more likely to diagnose indeterminate colitis. This study has shown that the systems of disease definition set out by Lennard-Jones and the O.M.G.E. are comparable and agree well with each other and clinicians's diagnosis, but biopsy specimens have a limited diagnostic value in disease differentiation in inflammatory bowel disease.