Prior anti-tumor necrosis factor exposure and colectomy risk in acute severe ulcerative colitis: time-to-event and target–trial considerations in MOREUS (GETECCU)

Dear Editor, We read with interest the study by Mesonero et al. and commend their insights into acute severe ulcerative colitis (ASUC) management in patients exposed to anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF).1 However, there are methodological and reporting issues that need to be discussed. First, inconsistencies between tables and figures should be corrected to ensure baseline comparability, treatment classification, and adjusted estimates. In table 1, the cohort-2 male count (176/312) corresponds to 56.4%, and re-running the χ2 test yields a non-significant P-value (∼.90) rather than .12; moreover, Welch’s t-tests using the published means and standard deviations suggest significant baseline differences in age (P ≈ .014) and disease duration (P ≈ 1 × 10−5), contrasting with the reported non-significant P-values. In table 2, the rescue–therapy comparison (78/149 vs 179/312) recalculates to P ≈ .31 (χ2) rather than .88, and the distributions of first-line and maintenance strategies appear more imbalanced than implied by P = .01-.02. In figure 1A, cohort-2 infliximab is labeled as 179, matching the total cohort-2 rescue–therapy count, whereas table 2 reports 97, creating ambiguity. Table 3 presents incongruent odds ratio/95% confidence interval (CI) pairings, with some odds ratios falling outside their stated 95% CIs, compromising interpretation of the regression results. Reconciling and correcting these issues is essential for independent verification and to underpin the study’s inferential claims.