Publications by authors named "Ahmad Albshesh"
Background: Small bowel video capsule endoscopy (SB-VCE) assesses mucosal inflammation in Crohn's disease (CD), while intestinal ultrasound (IUS) examines transmural involvement. We aimed to correlate SB-VCE with IUS in evaluating active CD and monitoring treatment response over time.
Methods: Patients with active SB-CD who initiated biologics were prospectively followed with fecal calprotectin (FC), SB-VCE, and IUS at baseline and after 14 and 52 weeks.
Background: Intestinal ultrasound (IUS) is used to assess disease activity, complications, and treatment follow-up in Crohn's disease (CD). Less is known about the association of disease activity on IUS with the risk of future disease relapse during biologically sustained clinical remission in CD.
Aim: The study aimed to investigate the association between IUS activity parameters and subsequent therapy failure in asymptomatic biologically treated patients with CD.
Background And Aims: Fecal calprotectin (FC) is known to be a sensitive biomarker of colonic inflammation but to a lesser degree of small bowel (SB) inflammation. Moreover, data on FC's diagnostic levels in different SB segments are scarce. We aimed to examine FC's diagnostic levels along the SB-axis in CD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Sedation increases colonoscopy risks and prolongs recovery time. We examined whether virtual reality (VR) can substitute for sedation. The primary outcome was the overall satisfaction of patients who underwent colonoscopy with VR headset compared with patients who underwent standard sedation.
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- The objective was to create a web-based AI tool that predicts drug sustainability (DS) for infliximab and vedolizumab in patients with moderate-to-severe Ulcerative Colitis (UC), addressing a gap in reliable prediction methods.!
- The study included data from three Israeli medical centers, analyzing patients treated for over 54 weeks without corticosteroids, hospitalizations, or surgeries, using machine learning for accurate predictions based on baseline clinical data.!
- The developed model showed strong predictive performance with an area under the ROC curve of 0.86 and accuracy ranging from 65.5% to 76.9%, promising improvements in clinical decision-making for managing UC while enhancing precision medicine practices.!
Article Synopsis
- A study investigated the effectiveness of adalimumab, an anti-TNFα monoclonal antibody, in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients, revealing that fewer UC patients continued treatment compared to those with Crohn's disease (CD).
- In a cohort of 50 UC patients, only 22% maintained treatment through the follow-up period, while 51% of 98 CD patients did.
- The loss of response to treatment was notably higher in UC patients, with 34% developing antibodies against adalimumab, although immunogenicity rates were similar between both patient groups.
Background: The effectiveness of anti-TNF or ustekinumab (UST) as a second-line biologic after vedolizumab (VDZ) failure has not yet been described.
Aims And Methods: In this retrospective multicenter cohort study, We aim to investigate the effectiveness of anti-TNF and UST as second-line therapy in patients with Crohn's disease (CD) who failed VDZ as a first-line treatment. The primary outcome was clinical response at week 16-22.
Background And Aim: Guidelines recommend a colonoscopy after an episode of complicated diverticulitis and after a first episode of uncomplicated diverticulitis. The influence of a previous colonoscopy on postdiverticulitis colonoscopic findings has not been studied. The aim of this work was to examine the incidence of adenoma detection rate (ADR), advanced adenoma (AA) and colorectal cancer (CRC) in patients with diverticulitis with and without previous colonoscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: The aim of our study was to create an accurate patient-level combined algorithm for the identification of ulcers on CE images from two different capsules.
Methods: We retrospectively collected CE images from PillCam-SB3's capsule and PillCam-Crohn's capsule. ML algorithms were trained to classify small bowel CE images into either normal or ulcerated mucosa: a separate model for each capsule type, a cross-domain model (training the model on one capsule type and testing on the other), and a combined model.
Article Synopsis
- The study examined the levels of hTERT-mRNA in exosomes from the serum of colon cancer patients, Lynch syndrome carriers, and healthy controls to assess its potential as a diagnostic marker.
- Results showed that colon cancer patients had significantly higher hTERT-mRNA levels compared to healthy individuals, and those with metastatic disease had even higher levels that correlated with CEA levels.
- The findings also indicated that Lynch syndrome carriers had a higher occurrence of positive hTERT-mRNA in exosomes than controls, suggesting the need for further research to understand its role in cancer development.
Background: Orofacial granulomatosis [OFG] is a rare syndrome that may be associated with Crohn's disease [CD]. We aimed to characterise this relationship and the management options in the biologic era.
Methods: This multicentre case series was supported by the European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation [ECCO], and performed as part of the Collaborative Network of Exceptionally Rare case reports [CONFER] project.
Article Synopsis
- Hypogammaglobulinaemia is a condition marked by low immunoglobulin levels and has similar gastrointestinal symptoms to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), making diagnosis challenging.
- A study involving 27 patients found that most had Crohn's disease-like features, with hypogammaglobulinaemia often diagnosed first, but sometimes after IBD-like symptoms developed.
- Treatment included antibiotics and intravenous immunoglobulin, with 77% of patients achieving clinical remission after about 44 months of follow-up.
Article Synopsis
- This study looked into how well two medications, ustekinumab (UST) and vedolizumab (VDZ), work as third-line treatments for patients with Crohn's disease who haven’t responded well to other medications.
- Researchers included 204 patients, with 76% receiving VDZ followed by UST, and 24% the opposite. After 16 to 22 weeks, about half of patients in both groups showed a response to the treatment.
- By week 52, similar response rates (around 86%) were observed, with about a quarter to a third of patients attaining clinical remission, indicating that both medications were similarly effective as third-class therapies. *
Patients with Crohn's disease (CD) are frequently subject to symptoms causing them to seek medical care in emergency departments (ED). Recurrent ED visits are frequent after initial discharge. We aimed to identify the characteristics of patients with Crohn's who tend to have recurrent visits to the ED.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Mucosal healing has been associated with long-term response to therapy for Crohn disease (CD). However, little is known about the significance of terminal ileum (TI) transmural thickness in predicting clinical outcomes.
Methods: In this retrospective observational cohort study, we examined the association of an index ultrasonographic assessment of TI thickness during the maintenance phase and the subsequent clinical outcome of CD in a cohort of patients treated with infliximab (IFX).
Lower adalimumab trough levels are associated with higher bowel wall thickness in Crohn's disease.
United European Gastroenterol J
March 2020
Background: In Crohn's disease, higher adalimumab trough levels and negative anti-adalimumab-antibodies associate with better clinical and endoscopic outcomes. Intestinal ultrasound has become a relevant non-invasive method to monitor treatment. However, data on the association between adalimumab levels and bowel wall thickness measured with ultrasound is limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: The aim of our study was to develop and evaluate a deep learning algorithm for the automated detection of small-bowel ulcers in Crohn's disease (CD) on capsule endoscopy (CE) images of individual patients.
Methods: We retrospectively collected CE images of known CD patients and control subjects. Each image was labeled by an expert gastroenterologist as either normal mucosa or containing mucosal ulcers.
CT-P13: a review on a biosimilar to infliximab in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.
Expert Opin Biol Ther
October 2019
: CT-P13 was developed as an infliximab biosimilar in 2013. The primary structure of CT-P13 is identical to that of original infliximab and it has highly similar higher order structure, physiochemical characteristics, and biological properties. To date, data from real-life cohorts and randomized controlled trials show comparable clinical efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of biosimilar CT-P13, and the original reference medicinal Product (RMP).
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