Smoking in inflammatory bowel diseases: Good, bad or ugly?

Smoking is an important environmental factor in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), having different effects in ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD). A recent meta-analysis partially confirmed previous findings that smoking was found to be protective against ulcerative colitis and, after onset of the disease, might improve its course, decreasing the need for colectomy. However, smoking increases the risk of developing Crohn’s disease and worsens its course, increasing the need for steroids, immunosuppressants and re-operations. Smoking cessation aggravates ulcerative colitis and improves Crohn’s disease. Data are however, largely conflictive as well as the potential mechanisms involved in this dual relationship are still unknown. In this review article, the authors review the role of smoking in inflammatory bowel diseases

The 7-year follow-up of the Hungarian BICAMS validation cohort implies that cognitive performance may improve in multiple sclerosis patients.

Cognitive impairment (CI) is a frequent symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS) and has a great impact on the patients' quality of life, so screening is essential. The brief international cognitive assessment for multiple sclerosis (BICAMS) was developed for this purpose. However, longitudinal data is lacking with the use of the battery.This study is to assess the performance of patients after 5 and 7 years of the original BICAMS validation study and to identify any influencing factors.BICAMS was used to measure cognitive function of 52 relapsing-remitting MS patients (RRMS) from the original validation study after 5 years (n = 43) and again, after 7 years (n = 42). Patients filled out the fatigue impact scale (FIS) and multiple sclerosis quality of life-54 (MSQoL-54) questionnaire, and we evaluated expanded disability status scale (EDSS).There was an improvement in the BVMT-R and the CVLT-II assessments at both the 5-year (p<0.001 and p=0.025) and the 7-year retest (p<0.001 and p=0.002). The prevalence of CI significantly decreased at the 5-year mark (p=0.021) but remained stable after that. There was no deterioration in MSQoL scores during the study. The basic cognitive performance is the most important influencing factor, but the duration of the disease, the EDSS score, and the escalation of the therapy also affect the cognitive scores.This is the longest longitudinal study utilizing the BICAMS battery, reinforcing its feasibility as a clinical screening tool. It seems that cognitive performance may improve in the long term and early initiation of effective therapy may influence this outcome

Association of adherence to therapy and complementary and alternative medicine use with demographic factors and disease phenotype in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Background and aims: Previous studies have suggested an increasing use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Furthermore, a significant number of IBD patients fail to comply with treatment. The aim of our study was to evaluate the prevalence of non-adherence and the use of CAM in Hungarian patients with IBD. Methods: A total of 655 consecutive IBD patients (CD: 344, age: 38.2 [SD 12.9] years; UC: 311, age: 44.9 [15.3] years) were interviewed during the specialist visit by self-administered questionnaire including demographic and disease-related data as well as items analyzing the extent of non-adherence and CAM use. Patients taking more than 80% of each prescribed medication were classified as adherent

Co-Administration of Proton Pump Inhibitors May Negatively Affect the Outcome in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Treated with Vedolizumab

Concomitant medications may alter the effect of biological therapy in inflammatory bowel disease. The aim was to investigate the effect of proton pump inhibitors on remission rates in patients with inflammatory bowel disease treated with the gut-selective vedolizumab. Patients from the Hungarian nationwide, multicenter vedolizumab cohort were selected for post hoc analysis. Primary outcomes were the assessment of clinical response and endoscopic and clinical remission at weeks 14 and 54. Secondary outcomes were the evaluation of the combined effect of concomitant steroid therapy and other factors, such as smoking, on remission. A total of 108 patients were identified with proton pump inhibitor data from 240 patients in the original cohort. Patients on steroids without proton pump inhibitors were more likely to have a clinical response at week 14 than patients on concomitant PPI (95% vs. 67%, p = 0.005). Non-smokers with IBD treated with VDZ were more likely to develop a clinical response at week 14 than smokers, particularly those not receiving PPI compared with patients on co-administered PPI therapy (81% vs. 53%, p = 0.041, and 92% vs. 74%, p = 0.029, respectively). We found that the use of PPIs in patients treated with VDZ may impair the achievement of response in certain subgroups. Unnecessary PPI prescriptions should be avoided

Real-life efficacy of vedolizumab on endoscopic healing in inflammatory bowel disease - A nationwide Hungarian cohort study

Background: GEMINI trials demonstrated the therapeutic efficacy of vedolizumab (VDZ) in Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC).Research design and methods: Aim of this study was to determine the real-life effectiveness of VDZ on endoscopic healing in the Hungarian nationwide cohort of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients based on changes on clinical and endoscopic scores. Every adult IBD patient in the country (121 UC and 83 CD) who completed short-term VDZ therapy were enrolled, of which 72 UC and 52 CD patients could complete the long-term therapy.Results: Rates of endoscopic healing were substantially higher in UC compared with CD patients during short- and long-term therapy (52.9% vs. 21.7%, p<0.0001, and 51.4% vs. 21.2%, p=0.015, respectively). In CD, the rate of endoscopic healing was lower at week 14 compared with week 22 (14.5% vs. 37.0%, p=0.026). Prior anti-TNF-alpha therapy (88.73%) was not associated with a significant decrease in therapeutic response. Average disease duration was significantly lower in CD patients achieving endoscopic healing at week 52 (11.75 vs. 5.27 years, p=0.007).Conclusions: VDZ therapy is an effective therapeutic option in anti-TNF-alpha refractory IBD. However, endoscopic healing rate was substantially lower and showed a significant delay in CD compared with UC

Prediction of short- and medium-term efficacy of biosimilar infliximab therapy. Do trough levels/antidrug antibody levels or clinical/biochemical markers play a more important role?

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