Background and Aims

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS) mostly affecting youth in productive age. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) including ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease, is another autoimmune disorder. It is shown that the prevalence of IBD before and after diagnosis is higher in MS patients than controls. Literature suggests that MS and IBD share genetic risk with IBD but the magnitude of this overlap is not clear. the goal of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to update the pooled prevalence of IBD in MS patients.

Methods

Two researchers independently and systematically searched PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, Web of Science, and google scholar. They also

searched references of the included studies and conference abstracts which were published up to September 2021.

Results

: The literature search revealed 5719 articles, after deleting duplicates 3616 remained. Finally, 17 studies were included. The pooled prevalence of IBD in MS was 1% (I²=96.3%, p<0.001). The pooled odds ratio of developing IBD in MS cases was 1.36(95%CI:1.1-1.6) (I²=58.3, P=0.01).

Conclusions

The result of this systematic review and meta-analysis show that the pooled prevalence of IBD in MS patients was 1% The pooled odds ratio of developing IBD in MS cases was 1.36.