TABLE 2.

Clinical and Laboratory Characteristics of the Study Patients at entry

CHARACTERISTIC	UDCA (N=76)	PLACEBO (N=74)	P-VALUE
Age – yr	47.9 (20.5, 75.6)	45.3 (17.9, 73.6)	0.219
Duration of Disease	1.3 (0.1, 13.4)	1.0 (0.0, 49.5)	0.833
Female sex – no. (%)	38 (50)	26 (35)	0.066‡
Colitis – no. (%)	55 (72)	61 (82)	0.14
Varices – no. (%)	13 (17)	13 (18)
Histologic Stage – no. (%)
I	27 (36)	23 (31)	0.564‡
II	19 (25)	21 (28)	0.640‡
III	20 (26)	17 (23)	0.635‡
IV	10 (13)	13 (18)	0.454‡
Alkaline Phosphatase*	3.3 (0.7, 11.2)	3.2 (0.5, 16.9)	0.814
Aspartate aminotransferase*	2.0 (0.5, 6.9)	2.3 (0.5, 9.4)	0.684
Bilirubin – mg/dl*	0.8 (0.2, 3.2)	1.0 (0.2, 5.5)	0.100
Mayo Risk Score	0.3 (−1.4, 2.4)	0.3 (−1.5, 2.5)	0.483

Median (Min, Max) reported unless otherwise indicated

^*Values represent multiples of the upper limits of normal

^‡The Chi-square test of independence was used to determine statistical significance for categorical data. For the remaining (continuous) variables, the Wilcoxon rank sum test was used; for these variables, the median(min, max) is shown.