Noninvasive Assessment of Postoperative Disease Recurrence in Crohn's Disease: A Multicenter, Prospective Cohort Study on Behalf of the Italian Group for Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Background & Aims: Colonoscopy (CS) is the gold standard to assess postoperative recurrence (POR) in Crohn's disease (CD). However, CS is invasive and may be poorly tolerated by patients. The aim of this study was to prospectively assess the diagnostic accuracy of a noninvasive approach in detecting POR, using the endoscopic Rutgeerts' score (RS) as the reference standard.

Rediscovering histology: what is new in endoscopy for inflammatory bowel disease?

The potential of endoscopic evaluation in the management of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) has undoubtedly grown over the last few years. When dealing with IBD patients, histological remission (HR) is now considered a desirable target along with symptomatic and endoscopic remission, due to its association with better long-term outcomes. Consequently, the ability of endoscopic techniques to reflect microscopic findings without having to collect biopsies has become of upmost importance.

TL1A: A New Potential Target in the Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), are chronic inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. In the last few years, the development of biological agents targeting cytokines and receptors involved in IBD pathogenesis has led to better outcomes and has improved the course of the disease. Despite their effectiveness, drugs such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors, anti-Interleukin-12/23 and anti-integrins, do not induce a response in about one-third of patients, and 40% of patients lose response over time.

New Paradigms to Help Decisions in Treatment Choice: Head to Head Trial of Biological Therapies in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.

The increasing armamentarium of drugs for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) requires a direct comparison of different therapeutic options in order to guide physicians in the choice of the most appropriate treatment for their patients. Head-to-head trials, considered the gold standard in comparative research in IBD, allow to compare different therapies in the same population and setting, but also to evaluate different treatment strategies. Although head-to-head trials including biologics and immunosuppressive therapy in IBD have been performed decades ago, the interest in these direct comparisons is growing since the publication of the first randomized controlled trial directly comparing biologic agents with different molecular targets.

Application of Ultrasound Elastography for Assessing Intestinal Fibrosis in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Fiction or Reality?

Background: Intestinal fibrosis and subsequent strictures represent an important burden in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Both the detection and evaluation of the degree of fibrosis in stricturing Crohn's disease (CD) are important when deciding the best therapeutic strategy (medical anti-inflammatory therapy, endoscopic dilation, surgery). Ultrasound elastography (USE) is a non-invasive technique that has been proposed in the field of IBD for evaluating intestinal stiffness as a biomarker of intestinal fibrosis.