A very big thank you to Dr. Andrés Cárdenas for taking the time to talk over skype about his experience as a practicing physician with both IBD patients, many who deal with ulcerative colitis, and primary schlerosing cholangitis patients. And as we learned in the interview recording, there are many people who have both of these IBD + PSC at the same time.
Although there have been several stories written on the iHaveUC site over the years about PSC, I myself did not know how prevalent this disease can be within the UC community.
Big Ideas From Dr. Cárdenas:
- ~80% of PSC Patients have Ulcerative Colitis
- ~5% of Ulcerative Colitis patients have PSC
- PSC is related to the bile ducts getting inflamed
What to Do?
As we are all in some way dealing with life before/during or after an ulcerative colitis diagnosis, I often resort to the thinking that knowledge can be a valuable tool towards a productive life. And as much as I don’t want anybody to be scared by this fact that a pretty reasonable percentage of UC’ers will someday also come down with a 2nd diagnosis of PSC…it appears to be the reality.
So, check out the video, Dr. Cardenas goes into details about signs and symptoms of PSC, and if you have any concerns, I would encourage you to bring this up with your gastroenterologist doctor or current treating physician. They should be able to help with a potential diagnosis or be able to rule out PSC from your concerns.
Below are a few links to previous stories submitted on the site which involved PSC:
- https://www.ihaveuc.com/primary-sclerosing-cholangitis-from-colitis/
- This story was written by a UC’er who was first diagnosed with UC then several years later diagnosed with PSC after an MRI exam
- https://www.ihaveuc.com/please-help-us-knock-out-constant-headaches/
- Written by the mother of a beautiful and wonderful 10 year old little girl named Lindsay who was diagnosed w both PSC and Ulcerative Colitis.
Thanks for watching
I know the video quality was not perfect, but I think you can easily find the main points/takeaways from Dr. Cardenas sharing his experiences with UC’ers and PSC folks.
On a side note as it may not have been clear from the interview, I came across Dr. Cardenas from a family member who uses the website. This person has a child with UC who was heading off to study in Spain for a semester and they had reached out to me asking for a Gastroenterologist recommendation. The find a gastroenterologist list showed only one doctor for Barcelona at the time.
Anyways…a few months later I received some follow up from this particular family member that they had found a great doctor for their child. And…that doctor was Dr. Andres Cardenas. He now has a doctor review as well…and if you find yourself in need of a GI doctor and you are anywhere close to Barcelona, Spain (a highly recommended city/part of the world to visit BTW) you can check out his contact details here.. https://www.ihaveuc.com/dr-andres-cardenas-digestive-disease-barcelona-spain/
So, I simply emailed him asking if he’d like to talk about UC/PSC, he graciously agreed…and there you go.
Have a great rest of the week,
Adam
I started site shortly after being diagnosed in October of 2008 with severe pancolitis (when my whole colon was inflamed).
For me, it was a very rough start with severe symptoms. Getting bounced from medication to medication was not easy or too helpful. But, I did meet another UC’er, changes several parts of my diet, and of course the rest is history.
Leave a comment, ask a question, take advantage of our past experiences here, use the search boxes, they are your friends to0:)
I’ve written 2 different ulcerative colitis ebooks, you can check them out here.
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