Iran has been one of the most affected countries in the world by COVID 19.The aim of our study was determine the outcome of COVID 19 infection in IBD patients. Furthermore we analyzed the outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infection in IBD patients treated with immunosuppressant.

This is a cross-sectional, observational study. This observational study included all patients with IBD, regularly followed in our IBD Clinic at Tertiary Medical Center from February 5th, 2020 to Augest 5th, 2021. We identified those patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection either by PCR test or chest CT imaging.

A total of 401patients were recruited (n=346 [86.28%] with ulcerative colitis , n= 53 [13.22%] with Crohn’s disease and 2[0.5%] with indeterminate colitis). Of these patients, 273 (68.08%) developed no symptoms or signs during the follow-up period,128 patients developed symptoms similar to covid 19 and 76(18.9%) were diagnosed as confirmed COVID 19 cases Men comprised 60.5% of the confirmed COVID-19 groups, which shows that men were statistically more likely to have symptoms of COVID-19 during the follow-up period (P value=0.04), No significant differences were observed among confirmed, possible and asymptomatic cases in terms of concomitant medications: Steroids (p=0.6), Thiopurines (p=0.23), anti-TNF (p=0.23) and Aminosalicylate (p=0.61). three patient required hospitalization but there were no admissions to intensive care unit or deaths related to COVID-19.

The risk of COVID 19 related adverse outcomes and death in patients with IBD is low, also patients with IBD under immunosuppressive treatment are not at an increased risk of COVID 19. Key Words: inflammatory bowel disease, IBD, SARS, COVID-19