Prevalence of extraintestinal manifestations in paediatric patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease : results from the Swiss IBD Cohort Study

Background: There is a paucity of data from large cohort studies on the prevalence and type of extraintestinal manifestations in pediatric patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). We aimed to assess the prevalence and type of EIM in pediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Methods: Data from patients enrolled in the Pediatric Swiss IBD Cohort Study (P-SIBDCS) were analyzed. Since 2008 the P-SIBDCS collects data on patients aged 2-17 from hospitals and private practices across Switzerland. Results of continuous data are reported as median and interquartile range

Are lay people good at recognising the symptoms of schizophrenia?

©2013 Erritty, Wydell. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the general public’s perception of schizophrenia symptoms and the need to seekhelp for symptoms. The recognition (or ‘labelling’) of schizophrenia symptoms, help-seeking behaviours and public awareness of schizophrenia have been suggested as potentially important factors relating to untreated psychosis. Method: Participants were asked to rate to what extent they believe vignettes describing classic symptoms (positive and negative) of schizophrenia indicate mental illness. They were also asked if the individuals depicted in the vignettes required help or treatment and asked to suggest what kind of help or treatment. Results: Only three positive symptoms (i.e., Hallucinatory behaviour, Unusual thought content and Suspiciousness) of schizophrenia were reasonably well perceived (above 70%) as indicating mental illness more than the other positive or negative symptoms. Even when the participants recognised that the symptoms indicated mental illness, not everyone recommended professional help. Conclusion: There may be a need to improve public awareness of schizophrenia and psychosis symptoms, particularly regarding an awareness of the importance of early intervention for psychosis

Alcohol and cannabis consumption in patients with inflammatory bowel disease: prevalence, pattern of consumption and impact on the disease.

There is little guidance regarding the impact of alcohol and cannabis on the clinical course of inflammatory bowel disease. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence, sociodemographic characteristics and impact of alcohol and cannabis use on the clinical course of the disease. We performed an analysis of prospectively collected data within the Swiss Inflammatory Bowel Disease Cohort Study with yearly follow-ups and substance-specific questionnaires. We analyzed the prevalence of use, the profile of users at risk for addiction and the impact of alcohol and cannabis on the course of the disease. We collected data of 2828 patients included between 2006 and 2018 and analyzed it according to their completion of specific surveys on alcohol and cannabis use. The prevalence of patient-reported active use was 41.3% for alcohol and 6% for cannabis. Heavy drinkers were over-represented among retired, married smokers receiving mostly aminosalicylates and less immunosuppression. In ulcerative colitis patients, low-to-moderate drinking was associated with less extensive disease. Cannabis users were often students with ileal Crohn's disease. A significant proportion of patients with inflammatory bowel disease consume alcohol or cannabis. Heavy alcohol consumption is most likely in male smokers >50 years, whereas young men with ileal disease rather use cannabis

Integration of Expressed Sequence Tag Data Flanking Predicted RNA Secondary Structures Facilitates Novel Non-Coding RNA Discovery

Many computational methods have been used to predict novel non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), but none, to our knowledge, have explicitly investigated the impact of integrating existing cDNA-based Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) data that flank structural RNA predictions. To determine whether flanking EST data can assist in microRNA (miRNA) prediction, we identified genomic sites encoding putative miRNAs by combining functional RNA predictions with flanking ESTs data in a model consistent with miRNAs undergoing cleavage during maturation. In both human and mouse genomes, we observed that the inclusion of flanking ESTs adjacent to and not overlapping predicted miRNAs significantly improved the performance of various methods of miRNA prediction, including direct high-throughput sequencing of small RNA libraries. We analyzed the expression of hundreds of miRNAs predicted to be expressed during myogenic differentiation using a customized microarray and identified several known and predicted myogenic miRNA hairpins. Our results indicate that integrating ESTs flanking structural RNA predictions improves the quality of cleaved miRNA predictions and suggest that this strategy can be used to predict other non-coding RNAs undergoing cleavage during maturation

Bifidobacterium infantis strains with and without a combination of Oligofructose and Inulin (OFI) attenuate inflammation in DSS-induced colitis in rats

BACKGROUND: Pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease is thought to be through different factors and there is a relationship between the gut flora and the risk of its development. Probiotics can manipulate the microflora in chronic inflammation and may be effective in treating inflammation. Bifidobacterium are saccharolytic and their growth in the gut can be promoted by non-absorbable carbohydrates and its increase in the colon appears to be of benefit. METHODS: Oligofructose and inulin (OFI) alone and the two B. infantis DSM 15158 and DSM 15159 with and without OFI, were fed to Sprague-Dawley rats for 7 days prior to colitis induction and administrations continued for another 7 days with the DSS. Colitis severity assessed using a Disease Activity Index. Samples were collected 7 days after colitis induction, for intestinal bacterial flora, bacterial translocation, short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), myeloperoxidase (MPO), cytokines (IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-10 and TGF-β) and malondialdehyde (MDA). RESULTS: OFI alone or the B. infantis strains with and without OFI improved significantly the DAI and decreased colonic MPO activity. Colonic tissue IL-1β decreased significantly in all treated groups except B. infantis DSM 15158. MDA decreased significantly in B. infantis DSM 15159 with and without OFI compared to colitis control. Succinic acid increased significantly in OFI group with and without DSM 15159 compared to all groups. Sum values of propionic, succinic acid and butyric acid increased significantly in all groups compare to the colitis control. Bacterial translocation to mesenteric lymph nodes decreased significantly in all groups compared to colitis control. Translocation to the liver decreased significantly in all groups compare to the colitis control and OFI + B. infantis DSM 15158 groups. CONCLUSION: Administrations of OFI and Bifidobacterium improve DSS-induced acute colitis and have an anti-inflammatory effect. Major differences in effect were observed between the two B. infantis strains as indicated in MDA and succinic acid concentration as well as bacterial translocation rate in synbiotic combinations

Preservation of Ranking Order in the Expression of Human Housekeeping Genes

Housekeeping (HK) genes fulfill the basic needs for a cell to survive and function properly. Their ubiquitous expression, originally thought to be constant, can vary from tissue to tissue, but this variation remains largely uncharacterized and it could not be explained by previously identified properties of HK genes such as short gene length and high GC content. By analyzing microarray expression data for human genes, we uncovered a previously unnoted characteristic of HK gene expression, namely that the ranking order of their expression levels tends to be preserved from one tissue to another. Further analysis by tensor product decomposition and pathway stratification identified three main factors of the observed ranking preservation, namely that, compared to those of non-HK (NHK) genes, the expression levels of HK genes show a greater degree of dispersion (less overlap), stableness (a smaller variation in expression between tissues), and correlation of expression. Our results shed light on regulatory mechanisms of HK gene expression that are probably different for different HK genes or pathways, but are consistent and coordinated in different tissues

Farnesoid X Receptor (FXR) Activation and FXR Genetic Variation in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Contains fulltext : 96924.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: We previously showed that activation of the bile salt nuclear receptor Farnesoid X Receptor (FXR) protects against intestinal inflammation in mice. Reciprocally, these inflammatory mediators may decrease FXR activation. We investigated whether FXR activation is repressed in the ileum and colon of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients in remission. Additionally, we evaluated whether genetic variation in FXR is associated with IBD. METHODS: mRNA expression of FXR and FXR target gene SHP was determined in ileal and colonic biopsies of patients with Crohn's colitis (n = 15) and ulcerative colitis (UC; n = 12), all in clinical remission, and healthy controls (n = 17). Seven common tagging SNPs and two functional SNPs in FXR were genotyped in 2355 Dutch IBD patients (1162 Crohn's disease (CD) and 1193 UC) and in 853 healthy controls. RESULTS: mRNA expression of SHP in the ileum is reduced in patients with Crohn's colitis but not in patients with UC compared to controls. mRNA expression of villus marker Villin was correlated with FXR and SHP in healthy controls, a correlation that was weaker in UC patients and absent in CD patients. None of the SNPs was associated with IBD, UC or CD, nor with clinical subgroups of CD. CONCLUSIONS: FXR activation in the ileum is decreased in patients with Crohn's colitis. This may be secondary to altered enterohepatic circulation of bile salts or transrepression by inflammatory signals but does not seem to be caused by the studied SNPs in FXR. Increasing FXR activity by synthetic FXR agonists may have benefit in CD patients

Do teachers have more health problems? Results from a French cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND: Although only a few studies have been published on teachers' health, certain ideas are widely accepted, such as for example, the preconceived notion that teachers suffer from an excessively high rate of mental health problems. The objective of this study is to compare teachers' mental and physical health to that of a control group. METHODS: A cross-sectional postal survey was conducted among a sample of 3,679 teachers and 1,817 non-teachers aged 20 to 60 years old. RESULTS: No lifetime prevalence of any psychiatric disorder (with the exception of undifferentiated somatoform disorder in men) or mean scores of psychological distress were found to be significantly higher in teachers. However, multiple analyses, adjusted for all confounding variables, revealed a higher risk of lifetime anxiety disorders in male teachers. On the other hand, significant differences were observed for some physical ailments: a higher lifetime prevalence of rhinopharyngitis/laryngitis in both male and female teachers, of conjunctivitis and lower urinary tract infection in male teachers and of bronchitis, eczema/dermatitis and varicose veins in female teachers. No significant difference was found for chronic pain between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Teachers do not seem to have poorer mental health. However, their physical condition is characterized by a higher prevalence of health problems related to the ENT tract, and to a lesser extent, depending on the gender, to skin, eyes, legs and lower urinary tract