AIM:To investigate differences of clinical characteristics and disease courses between familial and sporadic inflammatory bowel disease(IBD)patients.METHODS:We obtained clinical data on Crohn’s disease(CD)(n=691)and ulcerative colitis(n=1113)from a tertiary referral medical center between 2005and 2012.Seventeen patients(2.5%)with CD and27 patients(2.4%)with ulcerative colitis(UC)were identified as having a familial history of IBD,including the first and second degree relatives.For each control case,three times the number of age-,sex-,and diagnosis year-matched CD and UC patients,without a family history of IBD,were randomly selected in this case control study.RESULTS:There were no significant differences in age or main symptom at diagnosis,extraintestinal manifestation,location/extent,behavior of disease activity,number of hospitalizations,number of operations,operation type,number of relapses,or oral medical treatment between familial and sporadic CD and UC patients.Median(min-max)follow-up periods after diagnosis of familial CD and sporadic CD patients were 84(24-312)and 36(8-240)mo,respectively(P=0.008).Familial CD patients more frequently used anti-tumor necrosis factor(TNF)antibodies compared to sporadic CD patients(17.6%vs 0%,P=0.014).CONCLUSION:In conclusion,a family history of IBD does not seem to be an important predictive factor affecting clinical characteristics or disease course even if there is a more frequent use of anti-TNF antibodies in familial CD patients compared to sporadic CD patients. AIM: To investigate differences of clinical characteristics and disease courses between familial and sporadic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. METHODS: We obtained clinical data on Crohn’s disease (CD) (n = 691) and ulcerative colitis (n = 1113) tertiary referral medical center between 2005 and 2012. Seventeen patients (2.5%) with CD and27 patients (2.4%) with ulcerative colitis (UC) were identified as having a familial history of IBD, including the first and second degree relatives.For each control case , three times the number of age-, sex-, and diagnosis year-matched CD and UC patients, without a family history of IBD, were randomly selected in this case control study .RESULTS: There were no significant differences in age or main symptom at diagnosis, extraintestinal manifestation, location / extent, behavior of disease activity, number of hospitalizations, number of operations, operation type, number of relapses, or oral medical treatment between familial and sporadic CD and UC patients. Median (min-max) f Olil-up periods after diagnosis of familial CD and sporadic CD patients were 84 (24-312) and 36 (8-240) mo, respectively (P = 0.008) .Familial CD patients more frequently used anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antibodies compared to sporadic CD patients (17.6% vs 0%, P = 0.014) .CONCLUSION: In conclusion, a family history of IBD does not seem to be an important predictive factor affecting clinical characteristics or disease course even if there is a more frequent use of anti-TNF antibodies in familial CD patients compared to sporadic CD patients.