Publications by authors named "Karina Winther Andersen"

The prevalence and disease burden of chronic inflammatory diseases (CIDs) are predicted to rise. Patients are commonly treated with biological agents, but the individual treatment responses vary, warranting further research into optimizing treatment strategies. This study aimed to compare the clinical treatment responses in patients with CIDs initiating biologic therapy based on smoking status, a notorious risk factor in CIDs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Pan-enteric capsule endoscopy (CE) is an attractive diagnostic approach in patients examined for Crohn's disease (CD). The aim of this study was to examine the adherence to the recommended bowel cleansing regimen and determine clinical factors affecting the image quality.

Methods: In a prospective blinded trial, patients with suspected CD were examined with the PillCam Crohn's capsule after bowel preparation with 2 + 2 L of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and sodium phosphate booster.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

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.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

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.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • This study investigated the long-term outcomes of ulcerative colitis (UC) patients using a population-based cohort to understand the impact of modern treatments like biological therapy and immunomodulators over five years.
  • Out of 717 patients tracked, 6% required colectomy, and 23% were hospitalized, with some patients showing disease progression or regression.
  • Despite aggressive treatments, the overall disease outcomes (like colectomy rates) did not differ significantly from previous decades, but immunomodulators were linked to a lower risk of hospitalizations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Chronic inflammatory diseases (CIDs) are frequently treated with biological medications, specifically tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi)). These medications inhibit the pro-inflammatory molecule TNF alpha, which has been strongly implicated in the aetiology of these diseases. Up to one-third of patients do not, however, respond to biologics, and lifestyle factors are assumed to affect treatment outcomes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The Epi-IBD study followed 488 patients with Crohn's disease from various European centers to evaluate their outcomes over five years, focusing on surgery, hospitalizations, and progression of the disease.
  • - Of the patients studied, 22% underwent surgery, and 36% were hospitalized, with about 14% experiencing worsening disease conditions, yet outcomes between Western and Eastern European patients were largely similar.
  • - Significant differences in treatment approaches were observed, with Western Europeans more often receiving biological therapies and immunomodulators, which helped lower surgery and hospitalization risks, but did not ultimately change disease progression rates across regions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF