BACKGROUND AND AIM The treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC) with 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) does not have the same therapeutic effect in all patients. We tested the hypothesis that the effectiveness of the drug is related to its mucosal concentration.

PATIENTS Twenty one UC patients receiving oral 5-ASA (2.4–3.2 g/day) were enrolled in the study. Four were also receiving topical treatment (2 g/day).

RESULTS Mucosal concentrations of 5-ASA were significantly higher (p=0.03) in patients with endoscopic scores of 0–1 compared with those with scores of 2–3 (16.1 (range 10.2–45) v 5.5 (3.5–17.4), respectively) and in patients with lower histological inflammation compared with those with more severe scores (17.4 (10.5–45)v 8.9 (3.5–17.2), respectively) (p<0.01). In contrast, mucosal sIL2-R concentrations were significantly lower in patients with slight endoscopic and histological lesions than in those with more severe disease. A significative inverse correlation (r=−0.85) was found between 5-ASA and sIL-2R mucosal concentrations (p=0.00008).

CONCLUSIONS In patients with UC, in the same area of the intestinal tract, we found that the higher the 5-ASA mucosal concentrations, the lower the IL-2R levels and endoscopic and histological scores. We hypothesise that maintenance of high mucosal 5-ASA concentrations in all colonic segments could contribute to improve clinical outcome in UC patients.