Personalized IBD care program reduces hospitalization, improves BMI

WASHINGTON — In this exclusive video perspective from Digestive Disease Week 2018, Julia Liu, MD, from the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System in Arkansas, discussed the outcomes of a personalized inflammatory bowel disease care program.

“We used probe-based confocal laser endomicroscopy findings to determine what therapy the IBD patient should be placed,” Liu told Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease. “We achieved excellent results with an 82% reduction in hospitalization over the 1-year period as well as normalization of their laboratory values and an increase in their body mass index.”

Liu and colleagues compared the IBD-related hospital admission, clinical and laboratory findings of 500 veteran patients at the time of hospital admission before the institution of the personalized IBD care program and 1 year after the program.

Average BMI improved from 26.6 kg/m² to 34 kg/m² (P = .004), hemoglobin increased from 11.5 g/dL to 14 g/dL (P = .023), and albumin normalized from 2.7 g/dL to 3.7 g/dL (P = .005). The researchers also observed a 64% reduction in the total number of IBD-related admissions (25 vs. 9 per year; P = .03), an 82% reduction in total number of hospital days (177 vs. 32 per year; P < .01), and the mean length of stay reduced from 7 days to 2 days (P = .019).

“The importance of this study is to demonstrate for the first time that a personalized IBD program can actually improve the outcome of patients,” Liu said. “We hope that other studies in the future, using this personalized IBD care approach can reproduce or validate our study findings.”

Reference :

Ridha AM, et al. Abstract Su917. Presented at: Digestive Disease Week; June 2-5, 2018; Washington, D.C.

Disclosure: Liu reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the DDW faculty disclosure index for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.