Background And Study Aim: The differential diagnosis of ulcerative colitis from Crohn's disease is of pivotal importance for the management of inflammatory bowel diseases, as both entities involve specific therapeutic management strategies. Confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) allows on-demand, in vivo characterization of architectural and cellular details during endoscopy. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of CLE to differentiate between ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.
Patients And Methods: This was a prospective study involving consecutive patients with a well-established diagnosis of ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease who underwent colonoscopy with fluorescein-aided confocal imaging.
Results: Overall, 79 patients were included (40 Crohn's disease, 39 ulcerative colitis). CLE findings in patients with Crohn's disease, showed significantly more discontinuous inflammation (87.5 % vs. 5.1 %), focal cryptitis (75.0 % vs. 12.8 %), and discontinuous crypt architectural abnormality (87.5 % vs. 10.3 %) than in ulcerative colitis (P < 0.0001). Conversely, ulcerative colitis was associated with severe, widespread crypt distortion (87.2 % vs. 17.5 % in Crohn's disease), decreased crypt density (79.5 % vs. 22.5 %), and frankly irregular surface (89.7 % vs. 17.5 %; P < 0.0001 for all comparisons). Statistically significant differences were not seen for heavy, diffuse lamina propria cell increase or mucin preservation. No granulomas were visible. Based on these findings, a CLE scoring system was developed that revealed excellent accuracy (93.7 %) when compared with the historical clinical diagnosis and the histopathological gold standard.
Conclusions: CLE could visualize several disease-specific microscopic features, which are conventionally used in standard histopathology to differentiate between ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. However, because of the limited penetration depth of CLE, submucosal details or granulomas were not visible. The new scoring system may allow in vivo diagnosis of ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. Trial registered at ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT 02238665.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-0034-1391226 | DOI Listing |
Annu Rev Med
January 2025
Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
Chronic pouchitis (CP) occurs in approximately 20% of patients with ulcerative colitis after total proctocolectomy with ileal pouch anal anastomosis and is categorized as antibiotic dependent, antibiotic refractory, or Crohn's disease-like. The management of CP is challenging because of limited evidence and few randomized controlled trials. In this review, we discuss the medical management of CP and its supporting data delineated by type of therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDig Dis Sci
January 2025
INFINY Institute, Department of Gastroenterology, CHRU Nancy, INSERM NGERE, Université de Lorraine, 54500 , Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France.
Background: Therapeutic drug monitoring is important for optimizing anti-tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) therapy in inflammatory bowel disease. However, the exposure-response relationship has never been assessed in pouchitis.
Aims: To explore associations between anti-TNF-α drug concentration and pouchitis disease activity in patients with a background of ulcerative colitis.
J Intern Med
January 2025
School of Pharmacy, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, South Korea.
Background: Evolving evidence suggests that patients undergoing treatment with Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKi) may face an increased risk of cardiovascular events, malignancies, and serious infections.
Objectives: We assessed cardiovascular, malignancy, and serious infection risks associated with JAKi use compared to tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) use, which served as the active comparator, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or ulcerative colitis (UC).
Methods: This study emulated a target trial using South Korea's nationwide claims database (2013-2023).
Background: Ulcerative Colitis (UC) is characterized by chronic, relapsing and remitting inflammation in the colon and rectum. Pathogenic T cell activity is thought to play a major role in this process. T cell effector function is determined by the T cell receptor (TCR) and the antigen it recognizes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe examine disease-specific and cross-disease functions of the human gut microbiome by colonizing germ-free mice, at risk for inflammatory arthritis, colitis, or neuroinflammation, with over 100 human fecal microbiomes from subjects with rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, or colorectal cancer. We find common inflammatory phenotypes driven by microbiomes from individuals with intestinal inflammation or inflammatory arthritis, as well as distinct functions specific to microbiomes from multiple sclerosis patients. Inflammatory disease in mice colonized with human microbiomes correlated with systemic inflammation, measured by C-reactive protein, in the human donors.
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