潰瘍性腸炎具有雙峰年齡分佈特色，臨床上有越來越多老年人才發作的潰瘍性腸炎。這 是一篇回顧性的研究，分析87 例患者用藥，病變範圍，嚴重程度，與住院率。比較潰瘍性腸 炎在非老年期發病( 診斷年齡<60歲) 和老年發病( 診斷年齡≥ 60歲) 的差異。其中有67例非老 年發病和20 例患者老年發病的潰瘍性腸炎。老年患者常有不典型的的臨床表現如便秘，發燒 (15% vs. 1.5% P =0.01; 15% vs. 2.9% P = 0.04)。非老年比老年人在發病初期症狀較為嚴重(P = 0.001)。在整體藥物使用方面，2 組間無統計差異。隨著老年族群的增加，臨床醫師有必要在 這個獨特的族群做適當的治療與了解。

Ulcerative colitis (UC) has a bimodal age distribution and increasingly recognized as a disease affecting the elderly. This was a retrospective cohort study in which medication use, disease extent, disease severity at the time of diagnosis, hospitalizations rate were evaluated in 87 patients. The natural course of disease was compared between patients with non-elderly onset UC (<60 years of age at diagnosis) and those of elderly-onset UC (>60 years of age at diagnosis). Sixty-seven patients developed non-elderly onset UC and 20 patients had elderly-onset UC. Atypical clinical presentations of UC of constipation and fever were more frequent among older patients (15% vs. 1.5%, P=0.01 and 15% vs. 2.9%, P= 0.04, respectively). Furthermore, the non-elderly onset group had more severe disease at the time of diagnosis than the elderly-onset group (P=0.001). Overall medication use did not differ significantly between the two groups. As increasing numbers of elderly patients develop UC, there is a need to understand and optimize therapeutic management in this unique population. (J Intern Med Taiwan 2015; 26: 196-205)