Comparison of energy metabolism and nutritional status of hospitalized patients with Crohn’s disease and those with ulcerative colitis

This study aimed to compare the nutritional status and energy expenditure of hospitalized patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) and those with ulcerative colitis (UC). Twenty-two hospitalized patients with CD and 18 patients with UC were enrolled in this study. We analyzed nutritional status upon admission by using nutritional screening tools including subjective global assessment, malnutrition universal screening tool, and laboratory tests. We measured resting energy expenditure (mREE) of the patients with indirect calorimetry and predicted resting energy expenditure (pREE) was calculated by using the Harris-Benedict equation. Results presented here indicate no significant difference in nutritional parameters and energy metabolism between CD and UC patients. In UC patients, a significant correlation was observed between mREE/body weight and disease activity detected by the Lichtiger and Seo indices. However, there was no correlation between mREE/body weight and Crohn’s disease activity index in CD patients. Inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 levels correlated with mREE/pREE in CD and UC patients while tumor necrosis factor-α was not. In conclusion, energy expenditure significantly correlated with disease activity in UC patients but not in CD patients. These results indicate that establishing daily energy requirements based on disease activity of UC is imperative for improving the nutritional status of patients.