The use of 5-aminosalicylate for patients with Crohn's disease in a prospective European inception cohort with 5 years follow-up - an Epi-IBD study.

Background: The lack of scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of 5-aminosalicylate in patients with Crohn's disease is in sharp contrast to its widespread use in clinical practice.

Aims: The aim of the study was to investigate the use of 5-aminosalicylate in patients with Crohn's disease as well as the disease course of a subgroup of patients who were treated with 5-aminosalicylate as maintenance monotherapy during the first year of disease.

Methods: In a European community-based inception cohort, 488 patients with Crohn's disease were followed from the time of their diagnosis.

Health-care costs of inflammatory bowel disease in a pan-European, community-based, inception cohort during 5 years of follow-up: a population-based study.

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) places a significant burden on health-care systems because of its chronicity and need for expensive therapies and surgery. With increasing use of biological therapies, contemporary data on IBD health-care costs are important for those responsible for allocating resources in Europe. To our knowledge, no prospective long-term analysis of the health-care costs of patients with IBD in the era of biologicals has been done in Europe.

Disease course of inflammatory bowel disease unclassified in a European population-based inception cohort: An Epi-IBD study.

Background And Aim: A definitive diagnosis of Crohn's disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC) is not always possible, and a proportion of patients will be diagnosed as inflammatory bowel disease unclassified (IBDU). The aim of the study was to investigate the prognosis of patients initially diagnosed with IBDU and the disease course during the following 5 years.

Methods: The Epi-IBD study is a prospective population-based cohort of 1289 IBD patients diagnosed in centers across Europe.

Vitamin D deficiency in a European inflammatory bowel disease inception cohort: an Epi-IBD study.

Background: Serum vitamin D level is commonly low in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Although there is a growing body of evidence that links low vitamin D level to certain aspects of IBD such as disease activity and quality of life, data on its prevalence and how it varies across disease phenotype, smoking status and treatment groups are still missing.

Materials And Methods: Patients diagnosed with IBD between 2010 and 2011 were recruited.

A model of an inflammatory bowel disease population-based registry: The Forlì experience (1993-2013).

Background And Aims: The article presents a population-based registry designed to estimate incidence and prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the area of Forlì (north-eastern Italy).

Methods: The registry included all patients with IBD ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) in the Forlì area from 1993 to 2013. A data manager matched records from various sources.

Patient and physician views on the quality of care in inflammatory bowel disease: results from SOLUTION-1, a prospective IG-IBD study.

Introduction: Remarkable differences in quality of care (QoC) might be observed in different countries, affecting quality of life of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. The aim of this study was to assess patient and physician perceptions of the QoC in Italy.

Methods: A multicentre observational study on the quality of care in IBD (SOLUTION-1) was conducted in 36 IG-IBD (Italian Group for Inflammatory Bowel Disease) centres in Italy.

[Predictors of clinical response in patients with ulcerative colitis treated with granulocyte-monocyte apheresis: analysis of the apheresis registry data].

We analyzed predictors of clinical response after a cycle of granulocytemonocyte apheresis in 173 patients with ulcerative colitis. Hemoglobin levels independently predicted good clinical outcome.

The Italian Registry of Therapeutic Apheresis: granulocyte-monocyte apheresis in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. A multicentric study.

Leukocytes are thought to play an important role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases; granulocyte-monocyte adsorptive (GMA) apheresis, an extracorporeal technique aimed at removing activated circulating leukocytes from the blood, may represent a safe and effective therapeutic tool in these patients. The Italian Registry of Therapeutic Apheresis performed an observational, multicentric study involving 24 Gastroenterology Units. In this study, laboratory data and clinical outcomes of 230 patients (148 males, mean age 43.

Prognostic significance of endoscopic remission in patients with active ulcerative colitis treated with oral and topical mesalazine: a prospective, multicenter study.

Background: It has been recommended that the treatment of active ulcerative colitis (UC) should be continued until complete healing of endoscopic lesions. However, the evidence supporting this recommendation is scanty. Aims of the present study were to assess the rate of patients with active UC who achieve clinical but not endoscopic remission after treatment with oral plus topical mesalazine and to compare the rate of relapse in patients with clinical/endoscopic remission and those with only clinical remission.

Topical treatment of distal active ulcerative colitis with beclomethasone dipropionate or mesalamine: a single-blind randomized controlled trial.

Goals: Therapy for active ulcerative colitis (UC) usually involves rectal formulations of corticosteroids (CS), which are characterized by the risk of systemic steroid-related adverse effects.

Background: To compare the efficacy and safety of the topically acting CS beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) versus mesalamine (5-ASA) in the treatment of active UC.

Study: Patients with mild to moderate distal active UC were randomized to a 6-week treatment with BDP 3 mg enema o.