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Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA), especially PR3- and MPO-ANCA, are major biomarkers for the diagnosis of ANCA-associated vasculitis. Several recent studies suggested that PR3-ANCA may also be detected in 18–53% of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and, to a lesser extent, PR3-ANCA in Crohn’s disease (CD) and MPO-ANCA in UC. These findings suggest that UC and CD need to be recognized as important differential diagnoses for patients positive for PR3- or MPO-ANCA. In addition, some studies support that the search for PR3-ANCA may help distinguishing UC from CD and that PR3-ANCA might be associated with more extensive disease and poorer response to therapy in UC. Although these observations are clinically important, the available evidence remains scarce and the detection of PR3-/MPOANCA in UC and CD may substantially vary across different immunoassays. Therefore, we propose to conduct a cross-sectional study of 200 clinically well-characterized patients with UC and CD with the aims of i) estimating the prevalence of PR3-/MPO-ANCA using 3 different immunoassay methods and ii) investigating the clinical significance of PR3-/MPO-ANCA in UC and CD.