Validation of models using basic parameters to differentiate intestinal tuberculosis from Crohn's disease: A multicenter study from Asia

Background Data on external validation of models developed to distinguish Crohn's disease (CD) from intestinal tuberculosis (ITB) are limited. This study aimed to validate and compare models using clinical, endoscopic, and/or pathology findings to differentiate CD from ITB. Methods Data from newly diagnosed ITB and CD patients were retrospectively collected from 5 centers located in Thailand or Hong Kong. The data was applied to Lee, et al., Makharia, et al., Jung, et al., and Limsrivilai, et al. model. Results Five hundred and thirty patients (383 CD, 147 ITB) with clinical and endoscopic data were included. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of Limsrivilai's clinical-endoscopy (CE) model was 0.853, which was comparable to the value of 0.862 in Jung's model (p = 0.52). Both models performed significantly better than Lee's endoscopy model (AUROC: 0.713, p Conclusions Scoring systems with more parameters and diagnostic modalities performed better; however, application to clinical practice is still limited owing to high rate of misdiagnosis of ITB as CD. Models integrating more modalities such as imaging and serological tests are needed.