Pharmacodynamic mechanisms behind a refractory state in inflammatory bowel disease.

Background And Aims: Biological therapy for inflammatory bowel disease is efficient in many cases but not all. The underlying molecular mechanisms behind non-response to biological therapy in inflammatory bowel disease are poorly described. Therefore, we aimed to characterize the mucosal cytokine transcript profile in non-immunogenic, non-responder patients with adequate trough level.

Patient satisfaction with on-demand sedation for outpatient colonoscopy.

Background And Study Aim: To reduce the costs of colonoscopy the feasibility of unsedated procedures has been explored. The aims of our study were to assess patient satisfaction with on-demand sedation and identify factors related to painful colonoscopy.

Patients And Methods: The Norwegian Gastronet quality assurance documentation tools consist of endoscopy reports (completed on site) and a patient satisfaction questionnaire (completed by the patient on the day after colonoscopy).

Sustaining the vitality of colonoscopy quality improvement programmes over time. Experience from the Norwegian Gastronet programme.

Objective: An important challenge of any quality assurance (QA) programme is to maintain interest among participants to ensure high data quality over time. The primary aim of this study was to identify factors associated with endoscopist compliance with the Norwegian QA programme for colonoscopies (Gastronet).

Material And Methods: The Gastronet registration tools are an endoscopy report form to be filled in directly after the procedure by the endoscopist, and a satisfaction questionnaire to be filled in by the patient on the day after the examination.

Syndrome diagnosis: human intuition or machine intelligence?

The aim of this study was to investigate whether artificial intelligence methods can represent objective methods that are essential in syndrome diagnosis. Most syndromes have no external criterion standard of diagnosis. The predictive value of a clinical sign used in diagnosis is dependent on the prior probability of the syndrome diagnosis.

The Norwegian Gastronet project: Continuous quality improvement of colonoscopy in 14 Norwegian centres.

Objective: The burden on colonoscopy capacity is considerable and expected to increase further as colorectal cancer screening programmes gain a foothold in Europe. In this situation, it is particularly important to evaluate the quality of the service given. In this article we present our first year of experience with a quality network of endoscopy centres in Norway (Gastronet).