Young gastroenterologists angle: Friends of the UEG young talent group consensus statement on the structure of young gastroenterology sections

Young gastroenterologists; Consensus; GastroenterologyJoves gastroenteròlegs; Consens; GastroenterologiaJóvenes gastroenterólogos; Consenso; Gastroenterologí

Medication Formulation Preference of Mild and Moderate Ulcerative Colitis Patients: a European Survey

INTRODUCTION Patient adherence is a major challenge for the successful management of any chronic disease, and ulcerative colitis (UC) is no exception. Patient adherence is closely related to patient preference of medication and formulation used. AIM The aim of this study was to investigate patient and physician perspectives around UC treatment preference. METHODS This study was conducted in France, Germany, Spain, and the UK. Physicians and UK inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) nurses answered an online questionnaire. In addition, adult mild-to-moderate UC patients, treated with oral mesalazine, were invited to answer a 30-min online survey which included a conjoint exercise. RESULTS 400 patients, 160 physicians, and 20 IBD nurses participated in the survey. 68% of patients were taking tablets and 32% granules. Physicians stated that from their perspective patients are more adherent to tablets than granules (76% vs. 24%), patients tended to have better relief of symptoms with tablets (69% vs. 31%), and patients found tablets to be the most convenient formulation (61% vs. 39%). From the patients' perspective, when questioned which formulation they prefer, 58% answered tablets, 37% granules, and 5% none of these. When patients were asked about some negative attributes of tablets, the highest agreement was for "I would like to take fewer each day" (6.1/10) and "I wish I could take fewer at a time" (5.4/10). CONCLUSIONS The majority of UC patients in this survey prefer the tablet formulation. A high strength tablet overcoming the high pill burden could be a good solution to address patient expectations

Validation of the Endoscopic Part of the Spigelman Classification for Evaluating Duodenal Adenomatosis in Familial Adenomatous Polyposis:A Prospective Study of Interrater and Intrarater Reliability

INTRODUCTION: In patients with familial adenomatous polyposis, the Spigelman classification is recommended for staging and risk stratification of duodenal adenomatosis. Although the classification has been used for decades, it has never been formally validated. METHODS: We included consecutive FAP patients undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopic surveillance and evaluated the inter- and intrarater reliability of the Spigelman classification. RESULTS: The interrater reliability of the endoscopic parameters and the Spigelman classification was good and excellent, respectively. The intrarater reliability of the endoscopic parameters and the Spigelman classification was moderate and good, respectively. DISCUSSION: The results support continued use of the Spigelman classification as the primary end point for future studies and as key endoscopic performance measure

Predictors of response and disease course in patients with inflammatory bowel disease treated with biological therapy-the Danish IBD Biobank Project:protocol for a multicentre prospective cohort study

IntroductionInflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are chronic diseases of unknown cause characterised by a progressive and unpredictable disease course. In the last decade, biological treatment has become a cornerstone in the treatment of IBD. However, one-in-three-to-four patients do not respond to first-line biological agents and another third of patients see their response diminish over time. This highlights an unmet need for optimising the use of biologicals and the prediction of treatment response. Considering the multifaceted nature of IBD, we hypothesise that multiomics profiling of sequential samples from single patients could facilitate the discovery of predictive biomarkers of response to biological therapy and disease course.MethodsThis is a multicentre prospective cohort study which will enrol 840 biological-naïve patients with IBD who initiate biological therapy in a 3-year period. Primary outcomes are the occurrence of primary non-response (evaluated at weeks 14–16) and loss of response (evaluated during entire follow-up in patients who obtain partial or full response after induction period). Each patient will be followed up for their clinical data for at least 1 year or till the end of study period (up to 4 years). Blood and stool samples will be collected sequentially during the first year of biological treatment. Intestinal tissue will be sampled after 1 year of treatment and whenever an endoscopy is performed. Samples will undergo transcriptomic, proteomic and microbial DNA analyses. Omics data will be integrated with clinical data to identify a panel of predictive biomarkers of response to biological therapy and disease behaviour in patients with IBD.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval has been obtained from the Danish Ethics Committee (H-18064178). Inclusion is ongoing at three study centres and will be initiated in two additional centres. Both positive and negative study results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals according to Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guidelines, as well as presented at international conferences

Impact of Vedolizumab on Extraintestinal Manifestations in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Results From a Descriptive, Retrospective, Real-world Study

BACKGROUND Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, may develop extraintestinal manifestations (EIMs). The EMOTIVE study aimed to analyze the effect of vedolizumab on EIMs in a real-world cohort of patients with IBD. METHODS This multicenter, descriptive, retrospective study was conducted in Belgium, Denmark, Israel, the Netherlands, and Switzerland in adults with moderately to severely active IBD and concurrent active EIMs at vedolizumab initiation (index date), with a ≥6-month follow-up after the index date. The primary endpoint was resolution of all EIMs within 6 months of vedolizumab initiation. RESULTS In 99 eligible patients, the most frequent EIMs were arthralgia (69.7%), peripheral spondyloarthritis (21.2%), and axial spondyloarthritis (10.1%). Within 6 and 12 months of vedolizumab initiation, 19.2% and 25.3% of patients reported resolution of all EIMs, while 36.5% and 49.5% of all EIMs were reported to be improved (combination of resolution and partial response), respectively. Vedolizumab treatment persistence at 12 months was 82.8%. Adverse events were reported in 18.2% of patients, with the most frequent being arthralgia (4.0%). CONCLUSIONS This real-world study showed resolution of all EIMs in up to one-fourth of patients with IBD and improvement in up to half of EIMs within 12 months of vedolizumab treatment. Overall, vedolizumab was effective on EIMs in patients with IBD and showed a good safety profile

Malignancy rates in Crohn's disease patients with perianal fistula: A German retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND Patients with inflammatory bowel disease are at increased risk of colorectal and extra-intestinal cancer. However, the overall cancer risk in patients with Crohn's disease (CD) with perianal fistulas (PF) (CPF) and those with CD without PF (non-PF CD) is unclear. OBJECTIVE To describe the prevalence and incidence of cancer in patients with CPF and non-PF CD, and to estimate incidence rate ratio (IRR) of cancer between CPF and non-PF CD groups. METHODS A retrospective cohort study was conducted using the German InGef (Institute for Applied Health Research Berlin) research database. Patients with a CD record and PF from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2014 were identified and followed up from 1 January 2015 until the first occurrence of cancer, end of health insurance contributing data, death, or end of study period (31 December 2020). Prevalence of any type of cancer including patients with CD diagnosed with cancer in the selection period and incidence of cancer excluding patients with CD diagnosed with cancer in the selection period were calculated. RESULTS In total, 10,208 patients with CD were identified. Of 824 patients with CPF (8.1%), 67 had had a malignancy (6-year period crude malignancy prevalence 8.13% [95% confidence interval (CI) 6.36%-10.21%]), which was lower than patients with non-PF CD (19.8% [95% CI 19%-20.6%]). Incidence (per 100,000 person-years) in patients with CPF was 1184 (95% CI 879-1561) and in non-PF CD was 2365 (95% CI 2219-2519). There was no significant difference in the adjusted IRR of cancer for the CPF group compared with the non-PF CD group (0.83 [95% CI 0.62-1.10]; p = 0.219). CONCLUSION There was no significant difference in the incidence of any cancer in patients with CPF compared with non-PF CD. However, patients with CPF had a higher numerical risk of cancer than the general German population

Patient Reported Outcomes in Chronic Inflammatory Diseases: Current State, Limitations and Perspectives

Chronic inflammatory diseases (CID) are emerging disorders which do not only affect specific organs with respective clinical symptoms but can also affect various aspects of life, such as emotional distress, anxiety, fatigue and quality of life. These facets of chronic disease are often not recognized in the therapy of CID patients. Furthermore, the symptoms and patient-reported outcomes often do not correlate well with the actual inflammatory burden. The discrepancy between patient-reported symptoms and objectively assessed disease activity can indeed be instructive for the treating physician to draw an integrative picture of an individual's disease course. This poses a challenge for the design of novel, more comprehensive disease assessments. In this mini-review, we report on the currently available patient-reported outcomes, the unmet needs in the field of chronic inflammatory diseases and the challenges of addressing these

The landscape of rare genetic variation associated with inflammatory bowel disease and Parkinson’s disease comorbidity

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) are chronic disorders that have been suggested to share common pathophysiological processes. LRRK2 has been implicated as playing a role in both diseases. Exploring the genetic basis of the IBD-PD comorbidity through studying high-impact rare genetic variants can facilitate the identification of the novel shared genetic factors underlying this comorbidity. Methods: We analyzed whole exomes from the BioMe BioBank and UK Biobank, and whole genomes from a cohort of 67 European patients diagnosed with both IBD and PD to examine the effects of LRRK2 missense variants on IBD, PD and their co-occurrence (IBD-PD). We performed optimized sequence kernel association test (SKAT-O) and network-based heterogeneity clustering (NHC) analyses using high-impact rare variants in the IBD-PD cohort to identify novel candidate genes, which we further prioritized by biological relatedness approaches. We conducted phenome-wide association studies (PheWAS) employing BioMe BioBank and UK Biobank whole exomes to estimate the genetic relevance of the 14 prioritized genes to IBD-PD. Results: The analysis of LRRK2 missense variants revealed significant associations of the G2019S and N2081D variants with IBD-PD in addition to several other variants as potential contributors to increased or decreased IBD-PD risk. SKAT-O identified two significant genes, LRRK2 and IL10RA, and NHC identified 6 significant gene clusters that are biologically relevant to IBD-PD. We observed prominent overlaps between the enriched pathways in the known IBD, PD, and candidate IBD-PD gene sets. Additionally, we detected significantly enriched pathways unique to the IBD-PD, including MAPK signaling, LPS/IL-1 mediated inhibition of RXR function, and NAD signaling. Fourteen final candidate IBD-PD genes were prioritized by biological relatedness methods. The biological importance scores estimated by protein–protein interaction networks and pathway and ontology enrichment analyses indicated the involvement of genes related to immunity, inflammation, and autophagy in IBD-PD. Additionally, PheWAS provided support for the associations of candidate genes with IBD and PD. Conclusions: Our study confirms and uncovers new LRRK2 associations in IBD-PD. The identification of novel inflammation and autophagy-related genes supports and expands previous findings related to IBD-PD pathogenesis, and underscores the significance of therapeutic interventions for reducing systemic inflammation