Association between vedolizumab and risk of clostridium difficile infection in patients with ulcerative colitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: The medical treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC) includes the use of biological agents such as vedolizumab, a gut-selective alpha4beta7 (ɑ4β7) antagonist. The mechanism of action of vedolizumab involves interfering with leukocyte trafficking into the gut vasculature, which halts inflammation. Due to this mechanism of action, concerns have arisen regarding an increased risk of gut infections, specifically, clostridium difficile infection (CDI).

Selecting first-line advanced therapy for ulcerative colitis: A clinical application of personalized medicine.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory disease that affects the colon, leading to symptoms of bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and urgency. The treatment of UC has evolved over the past few decades from locally active anti-inflammatory compounds to more selective therapies that target specific arrays of the immune system. The challenge of selecting the first advanced therapy became apparent in this rapidly expanding landscape of medications.

Crohn's and Colitis Canada's 2021 Impact of COVID-19 and Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Canada: Health Care Delivery During the Pandemic and the Future Model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Care.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had a profound impact on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) health care delivery. The implementation of necessary public health restrictions has restricted access to medications, procedures and surgeries throughout the pandemic, catalyzing widespread change in how IBD care is delivered. Rapid large-scale implementation of virtual care modalities has been shown to be feasible and acceptable for the majority of individuals with IBD and health care providers.

Crohn's and Colitis Canada's 2021 Impact of COVID-19 and Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Canada: COVID-19 Vaccines-Biology, Current Evidence and Recommendations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered a globally focused vaccine development program that produced multiple successful vaccines within a year. Four SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have been approved for use in Canada, using two different technologies, all of which have shown excellent efficacy in reducing the rate of symptomatic COVID-19 infection and 100% efficacy in preventing death from COVID-19. People with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), like many others with immune-mediated chronic diseases, were excluded from the pivotal trials of these vaccines, leading to early hesitancy by regulatory bodies to endorse administering the vaccines to these groups.

Crohn's and Colitis Canada's 2021 Impact of COVID-19 and Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Canada: Mental Health and Quality of Life.

There has been a dramatic rise in mental health difficulties during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. While young adults have the lowest risk of hospitalization and mortality due to COVID-19, they have been identified as being at highest risk of detrimental mental health outcomes during the pandemic, along with women, those with lower socioeconomic status and those with pre-existing mental health conditions. Somewhat of a crisis in mental health has emerged across the general population through the evolution of the pandemic.

Crohn's and Colitis Canada's 2021 Impact of COVID-19 and Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Canada: Risk Factors and Medications.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a disease that results from dysregulation of the immune system and frequently requires medications that can affect the immune response to infections; therefore, it was imperative to quickly understand the risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection on persons living with IBD and how that risk may be increased by commonly used IBD medications. The IBD research community in Canada and beyond quickly established collaborative efforts to better understand the specific risk posed by COVID-19 on persons with IBD. We learned that IBD itself was not a risk factor for death or serious complications of COVID-19, and that most commonly used drug classes (with the notable exception of corticosteroids) do not increase the risk of COVID-19-related adverse outcomes.

Crohn's and Colitis Canada's 2021 Impact of COVID-19 and Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Canada: Seniors With IBD.

The risk of hospitalization and death from Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) increases with age. The extreme elderly have been particularly vulnerable, with those above the age of 80 having a case-fatality rate as high as 15%. Aging of the immune system can lead to impaired inflammatory responses where eradication of an organism such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) is inadequate but is exaggerated in such a way as to enhance pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Crohn's and Colitis Canada's 2021 Impact of COVID-19 and Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Canada: Children and Expectant Mothers With Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) typically results in a mild infection, similar to those without IBD. Children and adolescents have less severe manifestations of COVID-19 compared to older people, whether or not they have IBD. However, some IBD medications (in particular, corticosteroids) are associated with more severe COVID-19.

Crohn's and Colitis Canada's 2021 Impact of COVID-19 and Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Canada: Epidemiology-The Trends of Disease Over Time.

At the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, there were many unknowns: transmission vectors of the virus, appropriate intervention strategies and if being immunocompromised due to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), for example, or medications put a person at increased risk for severe COVID-19. Imposing and relaxing of public health restrictions at different times and in different regions in Canada led to different epidemiologies of the virus in different provinces and territories. In order to understand the waxing and waning of waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to understand the effective reproductive number ( ) and the countervailing forces that exert upward or downward pressure on the spread of the virus at a given point in time.

Crohn's and Colitis Canada's 2021 Impact of COVID-19 and Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Canada: Executive Summary.

Persons with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) make up more than 0.75% of the Canadian population in 2021. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals with IBD, particularly those on immunosuppressive therapies, were concerned that their health status may place them at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 or experiencing more severe disease course if infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder as a cause of oesophageal ulceration and stricture: case report and literature review.

Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) of the oesophagus is a rare complication of solid organ transplant that requires a high index of suspicion to diagnose. A literature review conducted on Ovid Medline database retrieved 24 articles, among which five previous cases of oesophageal PTLD were identified. Development of oesophageal strictures related to PTLD has not been reported in the literature.

Prevalence of Glaucoma in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

To determine the prevalence of glaucoma in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients and compare it with that of patients without OSA. Patients investigated for OSA using polysomnography at the sleep center of King Abdulaziz University Hospital were invited to participate in this cross-sectional case series study. American Academy of Sleep Medicine guidelines were used to diagnose OSA.