Older adults with acute severe ulcerative colitis have similar steroid non-response and colectomy rates as younger adults.

Background: There is paucity of data on outcomes of acute severe ulcerative colitis (ASUC) in older adults (≥ 60 years of age).

Aim: To assess steroid non-response rates during the index admission for ASUC in older adults. Secondary outcomes were response to medical rescue therapy and colectomy rates; at index admission, 3 and 12 mo.

Vedolizumab-Induced Acute Interstitial Nephritis in Ulcerative Colitis.

Vedolizumab is used in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and is generally well tolerated. We report a 20-year-old man who presented with right flank pain on a background of ulcerative colitis. He was on vedolizumab with his last dose 1 week before the onset of symptoms.

Overgrowth of the indigenous gut microbiome and irritable bowel syndrome.

Culture-independent molecular techniques have demonstrated that the majority of the gut microbiota is uncultivable. Application of these molecular techniques to more accurately identify the indigenous gut microbiome has moved with great pace over recent years, leading to a substantial increase in understanding of gut microbial communities in both health and a number of disorders, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Use of culture-independent molecular techniques already employed to characterise faecal and, to a lesser extent, colonic mucosal microbial populations in IBS, without reliance on insensitive, traditional microbiological culture techniques, has the potential to more accurately determine microbial composition in the small intestine of patients with this disorder, at least that occurring proximally and within reach of sampling.