Ulcerative Colitis

Healio Gastroenterology presents the following account of our latest inflammatory bowel disease coverage.

Corticosteroid and tofacitinib use in patients with inflammatory bowel disease correlated with increased total cholesterol levels, according to research published in Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

Adalimumab was an efficacious and safe treatment option for pediatric patients with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, according to findings published in Lancet Gastroenteroly and Hepatology.

Approximately 3.1 million Americans currently have inflammatory bowel diseases and as many as 70,000 new cases are diagnosed in the United States each year, according to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation.

I remember being flummoxed as a first-year gastroenterology fellow when we had an elderly patient on service with abdominal pain and weight loss who ended up diagnosed with ileocolonic Crohn’s disease. Our “IBD antennae” are often finely tuned when we see a patient in their late teens or 20s with such symptoms, but maybe not so much in an octogenarian. Indeed, in a recent update of the inception cohorts of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis in Olmsted County, Minnesota, we had noted that two-thirds of Crohn’s disease patients and about 60% of ulcerative colitis patients were diagnosed under the age of 40 years. However, flipping this around, this means that one-third of patients with Crohn’s disease and 40% of patients with UC are diagnosed in their fifth decade of life or later.

Obesity correlated with an increased risk for older-age onset Crohn’s disease but not ulcerative colitis, according to research published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

In a video exclusive, Remo Panaccione, MD, University of Calgary, outlined new therapeutic data for the treatment of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases at the 16th Congress of European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation.

In a video exclusive, Bruce Sands, MD, Icahn School of Medicine, reported Stelara demonstrated sustained remission in adults with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis in the phase 3 UNIFI study long-term extension period.

Among older patients with inflammatory bowel disease, investigators found deficits in geriatric assessments were highly prevalent, according to a study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Survey results supported prior research that found one-quarter to one-third of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases report posttraumatic stress symptoms linked to their disease experience.