Publications by authors named "Laura Maas"

Background: The armamentarium of medical therapies to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) continues to grow, which has expanded treatment options, particularly after first biologic failure. Currently, there are limited studies investigating the predictive value of first biologic primary non-response (PNR) on subsequent biologic success. Our objective was to determine if PNR to the first biologic for IBD is predictive of response to subsequent biologic therapy.

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Background: Prebiotics are nondigestible carbohydrates fermented by gut bacteria into metabolites that confer health benefits. However, evidence on their role for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is unclear. This study systematically evaluated the research on prebiotics for treatment of IBD.

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Herbal medicines are used by patients with IBD despite limited evidence. We present a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating treatment with herbal medicines in active ulcerative colitis (UC). A search query designed by a library informationist was used to identify potential articles for inclusion.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study focused on comparing the effectiveness of two medications, infliximab (IFX) and adalimumab (ADA), for treating Crohn's disease perianal fistulae (CD-PAF), which is common and difficult to manage.
  • Results showed that at 6 months, 64.9% of patients on IFX experienced clinical improvement, compared to only 34.8% with ADA, indicating IFX is significantly more effective.
  • The study concluded that IFX not only has higher response and remission rates but also leads to better long-term treatment persistence than ADA, and supporting the use of immunomodulators could enhance healing.
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Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is associated with increased health care utilization. Forecasting of high resource utilizers could improve resource allocation. In this study, we aimed to develop machine learning models (1) to cluster patients according to clinical utilization patterns and (2) to predict longitudinal utilization patterns based on readily available baseline clinical characteristics.

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Iron deficiency anemia affects approximately 45% of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), negatively impacts the quality of life in this patient population, and significantly burdens our healthcare system. The pathogenesis of iron deficiency in IBD patients is multifactorial, including intestinal bleeding, malabsorption, and inadequate oral intake. Regular screening and diagnosis in these patients are imperative, and often patients have mixed iron deficiency anemia and anemia of chronic disease, especially in those with active inflammation.

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