The use of 5-aminosalicylate for patients with Crohn's disease in a prospective European inception cohort with 5 years follow-up - an Epi-IBD study.

Background: The lack of scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of 5-aminosalicylate in patients with Crohn's disease is in sharp contrast to its widespread use in clinical practice.

Aims: The aim of the study was to investigate the use of 5-aminosalicylate in patients with Crohn's disease as well as the disease course of a subgroup of patients who were treated with 5-aminosalicylate as maintenance monotherapy during the first year of disease.

Methods: In a European community-based inception cohort, 488 patients with Crohn's disease were followed from the time of their diagnosis.

Health-care costs of inflammatory bowel disease in a pan-European, community-based, inception cohort during 5 years of follow-up: a population-based study.

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.

Disease course of inflammatory bowel disease unclassified in a European population-based inception cohort: An Epi-IBD study.

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.

Vitamin D deficiency in a European inflammatory bowel disease inception cohort: an Epi-IBD study.

Background: Serum vitamin D level is commonly low in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Although there is a growing body of evidence that links low vitamin D level to certain aspects of IBD such as disease activity and quality of life, data on its prevalence and how it varies across disease phenotype, smoking status and treatment groups are still missing.

Materials And Methods: Patients diagnosed with IBD between 2010 and 2011 were recruited.

A model of an inflammatory bowel disease population-based registry: The Forlì experience (1993-2013).

Background And Aims: The article presents a population-based registry designed to estimate incidence and prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the area of Forlì (north-eastern Italy).

Methods: The registry included all patients with IBD ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) in the Forlì area from 1993 to 2013. A data manager matched records from various sources.

Patient and physician views on the quality of care in inflammatory bowel disease: results from SOLUTION-1, a prospective IG-IBD study.

Introduction: Remarkable differences in quality of care (QoC) might be observed in different countries, affecting quality of life of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. The aim of this study was to assess patient and physician perceptions of the QoC in Italy.

Methods: A multicentre observational study on the quality of care in IBD (SOLUTION-1) was conducted in 36 IG-IBD (Italian Group for Inflammatory Bowel Disease) centres in Italy.

Health-related quality of life improves during one year of medical and surgical treatment in a European population-based inception cohort of patients with inflammatory bowel disease--an ECCO-EpiCom study.

Background & Aims: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is impaired in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The aim was prospectively to assess and validate the pattern of HRQoL in an unselected, population-based inception cohort of IBD patients from Eastern and Western Europe.

Methods: The EpiCom inception cohort consists of 1560 IBD patients from 31 European centres covering a background population of approximately 10.

[Predictors of clinical response in patients with ulcerative colitis treated with granulocyte-monocyte apheresis: analysis of the apheresis registry data].

We analyzed predictors of clinical response after a cycle of granulocytemonocyte apheresis in 173 patients with ulcerative colitis. Hemoglobin levels independently predicted good clinical outcome.

The Italian Registry of Therapeutic Apheresis: granulocyte-monocyte apheresis in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. A multicentric study.

Leukocytes are thought to play an important role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases; granulocyte-monocyte adsorptive (GMA) apheresis, an extracorporeal technique aimed at removing activated circulating leukocytes from the blood, may represent a safe and effective therapeutic tool in these patients. The Italian Registry of Therapeutic Apheresis performed an observational, multicentric study involving 24 Gastroenterology Units. In this study, laboratory data and clinical outcomes of 230 patients (148 males, mean age 43.

Randomised clinical trial: the efficacy and safety of propionyl-L-carnitine therapy in patients with ulcerative colitis receiving stable oral treatment.

Background: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is characterised by impaired fatty-acid oxidation; l-carnitine has a key role in fatty-acid metabolism and short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate and propionate are important energy source for intestinal epithelial cells.

Aim: To evaluate efficacy and safety of colon-release propionyl-L-carnitine (PLC) in patients with mild-to-moderate UC receiving stable oral aminosalicylate or thiopurine therapy.

Methods: In a multicentre, phase II, double-blind, parallel-group trial, patients were randomised to receive PLC 1 g/day, PLC 2 g/day or placebo.

Prognostic significance of endoscopic remission in patients with active ulcerative colitis treated with oral and topical mesalazine: a prospective, multicenter study.

Background: It has been recommended that the treatment of active ulcerative colitis (UC) should be continued until complete healing of endoscopic lesions. However, the evidence supporting this recommendation is scanty. Aims of the present study were to assess the rate of patients with active UC who achieve clinical but not endoscopic remission after treatment with oral plus topical mesalazine and to compare the rate of relapse in patients with clinical/endoscopic remission and those with only clinical remission.

Pregnancy outcome in inflammatory bowel disease: prospective European case-control ECCO-EpiCom study, 2003-2006.

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) frequently affects women during their reproductive years. Pregnancy outcome in women with IBD is well described, particularly in retrospective studies.

Aim: To evaluate the pregnancy outcome in patients with IBD in a prospective European multicentre case-control study.

Increased risk of breast cancer in first-degree relatives of Crohn's disease patients. An IG-IBD study.

Background: Increased rates of colorectal cancer have been reported in patients with ulcerative colitis as well as with Crohn's colitis. This risk could be the result of shared genetic susceptibility and could be co-inherited rather than being just secondary to a long-standing, extensive mucosal inflammation.

Aim: To assess the prevalence of all malignancies in first-degree relatives of Crohn's disease patients in order to establish whether any association exists.

Topical treatment of distal active ulcerative colitis with beclomethasone dipropionate or mesalamine: a single-blind randomized controlled trial.

Goals: Therapy for active ulcerative colitis (UC) usually involves rectal formulations of corticosteroids (CS), which are characterized by the risk of systemic steroid-related adverse effects.

Background: To compare the efficacy and safety of the topically acting CS beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) versus mesalamine (5-ASA) in the treatment of active UC.

Study: Patients with mild to moderate distal active UC were randomized to a 6-week treatment with BDP 3 mg enema o.

Skip lesion of the cecum associated with proctitis: an atypical case of ulcerative colitis.

The authors report the clinical case of a patient who underwent total colectomy for acute ulcerative colitis. The unusual element in this case was the presence of a lesion ('skip lesion'), typical of ulcerative colitis, in the periappendiceal area of the cecum, which was discontinuous to the main site of disease located in the rectum and left colon. The presence of skip lesions, whose clinicopathological relevance is still unknown, would seem to disprove the widely held view that ulcerative colitis involves only the mucous membrane of the large intestine, with inflammatory processes of varying intensity, but without intervening normal areas.

Oral beclometasone dipropionate in the treatment of extensive and left-sided active ulcerative colitis: a multicentre randomised study.

Aim: To explore the efficacy and safety of the topically acting steroid beclometasone dipropionate (BDP) in an oral controlled release formulation in the treatment of extensive or left-sided ulcerative colitis.

Methods: In a multicentre, randomised, parallel-group, single-blind study, patients with active mild to moderate ulcerative colitis were randomised to a 4-week treatment with BDP 5 mg/day o.d.

Topical butyrate improves efficacy of 5-ASA in refractory distal ulcerative colitis: results of a multicentre trial.

Background: The treatment of distal ulcerative colitis, refractory to conventional 5-ASA/steroid treatment, is still a matter of debate. The present study aimed at confirming, with adequate statistical power, previous data indicating the usefulness of topical butyrate and 5-ASA in the treatment of this condition.

Design: Double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre study.

Oral beclometasone dipropionate in the treatment of active ulcerative colitis: a double-blind placebo-controlled study.

Aim: To evaluate efficacy and safety of oral beclometasone dipropionate (BDP) when added to 5-ASA in the treatment of patients with active ulcerative colitis.

Methods: In a 4-week, placebo-controlled, double-blind study, patients with extensive or left-sided mild to moderate active ulcerative colitis were randomized to receive oral 5-ASA (3.2 g/day) plus BDP (5 mg/day) or placebo.

Oral beclomethasone dipropionate in patients with mild to moderate ulcerative colitis: a dose-finding study.

Systemic glucocorticosteroids have demonstrated efficacy in ulcerative colitis (UC) but cause undesired systemic side effects. Beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) has potent topical activity and is extensively metabolized. This randomized double-blind study investigated an oral gastroresistant controlled-release preparation of BDP in 57 patients with mild to moderately severe extensive or left-sided UC.

Clinical features in familial cases of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis in Italy: a GISC study. Italian Study Group for the Disease of Colon and Rectum.

Objective: Previous studies have reported genetic anticipation, genomic imprinting, and phenotypic concordance of some clinical features in familial cases of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). The aim of our study was to investigate the phenotypic features of affected members in a large sample of CD and UC Italian families.

Methods: In a multicenter study, CD and UC families were recruited.

Age-related clinical severity at diagnosis in 1705 patients with ulcerative colitis: a study by GISC (Italian Colon-Rectum Study Group).

Clinical-endoscopic parameters of UC presentation were studied in 1705 out-patients, observed consecutively in 17 Italian gastroenterology centers (males 60.2%; average age at diagnosis 38.5 +/- 16.

A new mesalazine gel enema in the treatment of left-sided ulcerative colitis: a randomized controlled multicentre trial.

Background: A new mesalazine rectal gel preparation (without propellant gas) has been recently developed to improve topical treatment in distal ulcerative colitis.

Aim: To evaluate the efficacy, safety and patient tolerability of mesalazine gel enema compared with mesalazine foam enema in the treatment of patients with acute left-sided ulcerative colitis.

Methods: In a randomized multicentre investigator-blind parallel group trial, 103 patients with mild to moderate left-sided colitis or proctosigmoiditis were randomly allocated to mesalazine 2 g gel enema (n = 50 evaluable patients) and mesalazine 2 g foam enema (n = 53 evaluable patients) for 4 weeks.