Microbial associations with Microscopic Colitis

We enrolled patients who underwent colonoscopy for diarrhea. An experienced pathologist classified patients as having microscopic colitis (n=52) or non-microscopic colitis controls (n=153). Research biopsies were taken from the ascending and descending colon, and the microbiome was characterized with Illumina sequencing. We analyzed the associations between microscopic colitis and alpha diversity and individual taxa of the microbiome with a series of increasingly complex models adjusted for a range of demographic and health factors, proton pump inhibitor and antibiotic intake.