Correlation of Patient-Reported Outcome (PRO-2) with Endoscopic and Histological Features in Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease Patients

Perceptions and Prevalence of Cannabis Use in Women With Inflammatory Bowel Disease of Reproductive Age: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background

Many patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may use cannabis for relief of symptoms. During pregnancy, however, cannabis exposure may be associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. We aimed to determine the prevalence and perceptions of cannabis use in women with IBD.

Methods

Through recruitment at Mount Sinai Hospital and online platforms such as Twitter, women with IBD (age 18-45) were asked to complete anonymous surveys on demographics, cannabis use, perception of use during pregnancy, and discussing its use with healthcare providers (HCP). Categorical variables were reported as frequencies and compared across groups with the chi-square test.

Results

One-hundred and two pregnant patients with IBD were included in this study, 19 (18.6%) reported using cannabis. Current users were more likely to report constant pain in the last 12 months and discuss its use with their HCP. Fifty-three (52.0%) women were unsure of the specific risks associated with cannabis use during pregnancy, and only 15 (14.7%) had ever discussed its use with their HCP. Those who had discussed cannabis use with their HCP were more likely to have prior IBD-related surgery, perceive its use unsafe during pregnancy, and be more likely to be using cannabis.

Conclusion

Many women with IBD report uncertainty of the risks of cannabis use during pregnancy and the majority have never discussed cannabis use with their providers. With the increasing legalization of cannabis in many jurisdictions, it is imperative patients and healthcare providers discuss the risks and benefits of its use, particularly during vulnerable times such as pregnancy.

Dynamics of the Gut Mycobiome in Patients With Ulcerative Colitis

BACKGROUND & AIMS

Intestinal fungi have been implicated in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis (UC). However, it remains unclear if fungal composition is altered during active versus quiescent disease.

METHODS

We analyzed clinical and metagenomic data from the Study of a Prospective Adult Research Cohort with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (SPARC IBD), available via the IBD Plexus Program of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation. We evaluated the fungal composition of fecal samples from 421 patients with UC during clinical activity and remission. Within a longitudinal subcohort (n = 52), we assessed for dynamic taxonomic changes across alterations in clinical activity over time. We examined if fungal amplicon sequence variants and fungal-bacterial relationships were altered during activity versus remission. Finally, we classified activity in UC using a supervised machine learning random forest model trained on fungal abundance data.

RESULTS

During clinical activity, the relative abundance of genus Candida was increased 3.5-fold (P-adj < 1 × 10-4) compared with during remission. Patients with longitudinal reductions in clinical activity demonstrated parallel reductions in Candida relative abundance (P < .05). Candida relative abundance correlated with Parabacteroides diastonis, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, and Bacteroides dorei relative abundance (P < .05) during remission; however, these correlations were disrupted during activity. Fungal abundance data successfully classified patients with active or quiescent UC (area under the curve ∼0.80), with Candida relative abundance critical to the success of the model.

CONCLUSIONS

Clinical activity in UC is associated with an increased relative abundance of Candida, cross-sectionally and dynamically over time. The role of fecal Candida as a target for therapeutics in UC should be evaluated.

Predicting Endoscopic Improvement in Ulcerative Colitis Using the Ulcerative Colitis Severity Index

INTRODUCTION

We developed and internally validated a prognostic scoring index for ulcerative colitis (UC) patients that includes baseline patient-reported outcomes (PROs), biomarkers, endoscopy, and histology for achieving 1-year endoscopic improvement (EI).

METHODS

This post hoc analysis included 644 patients treated with ustekinumab induction therapy. Data were randomly split to obtain a 70% training and 30% testing cohort. Multivariate analyses assessed baseline variables and those with P < .05 were assigned weights based on their relative prognostic value from logistic regression modeling for predicting 1-year EI (Mayo endoscopic score ≤1). A cutoff was obtained by calculating the maximum Youden index and validated in the testing cohort.

RESULTS

Prior biologic failure, albumin <40 g/L, C-reactive protein >5 mg/L, Mayo stool frequency subscore, endoscopic erosions/ulcerations, and chronic histologic structural/architectural changes demonstrated significant associations with 1-year EI and were included in the final model. The Ulcerative Colitis Severity Index (UCSI) had acceptable discriminative ability for 1-year EI in the training (area under the curve [AUC], 0.78; 95% confidence interval, 0.70-0.86) and testing cohort (AUC, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.68-0.85). Compared with the UCSI, the Mayo Clinic score demonstrated poor accuracy (AUC, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.40-0.58) for predicting 1-year EI (P = .0006). The UCSI predicted 1-year endoscopic healing (Mayo endoscopic score = 0), clinical remission (total Mayo Clinic score ≤2 and no subscore >1), partial Mayo score remission <2, and 2-item Patient-Reported Outcome score (Mayo stool frequency and rectal bleeding subscore = 0) with significantly greater accuracy compared with the Mayo Clinic score.

DISCUSSION

The UCSI is an internally validated prognostic scoring tool that accurately predicts 1-year EI at baseline among moderate-to-severe UC patients initiating therapy. Further validation with additional datasets is needed.

[Inflammatory bowel diseases: Transformation of representations. A review]

The global burden of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is currently significant and continues to grow due to the increasing prevalence of ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), the increasing costs of diagnosis and treatment, and the high level of disability in patients with this disease. Categories, which leads to the search for risk factors and predictors of aggressive course and extraintestinal manifestations. According to the latest data, the prevalence of UC in Russia is 16.6 per 100 000 population, the annual registered increase is 11.3%; the prevalence of CD is 5.6 per 100 000 population, and the increase is 13.7%. In the Russian population of patients with IBD, the average age of disease onset is 35.3 years for UC and 31.2 years for CD. Moreover, in 89.3% of patients with UC, it took at least 2 years to verify the diagnosis, and in CD, within 2 years from the onset of clinical symptoms, the diagnosis was established in only 72.6% of patients. One of the dominant characteristics of IBD is its multisystem nature, which leads to the development of extraintestinal manifestations (ECM), which can be observed in 50-60% of patients, while up to 25% of patients with IBD have several EMC and the most common variants are joint lesions. A higher frequency of extraintestinal manifestations is observed in CD (up to 45% of patients), in female patients, in smokers and with a longer duration of the disease. To predict clinical remission, the level of fecal calprotectin and CRP, the need for glucocorticosteroids are important, to predict endoscopic remission - the level of fecal calprotectin, and to predict histological remission, an endoscopic Schroeder index value of ≤1 is important. The absolute risk of developing colorectal cancer in IBD remains relatively low, ranging from 1.1 to 5.4% after 20 years of disease. The main risk factors for IBD are total intestinal damage, high inflammatory activity, the stricturing phenotype of CD and the presence of primary sclerosing cholangitis.

Bowel Urgency in Ulcerative Colitis: Current Perspectives and Future Directions

Bowel urgency (BU), the sudden or immediate need for a bowel movement, is one of the most common and disruptive symptoms experienced by patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). Distinct from the separate symptom of increased stool frequency, BU has a substantial negative impact on quality of life and psychosocial functioning. Among patients with UC, BU is one of the top reasons for treatment dissatisfaction and one of the symptoms patients most want improved. Patients may not discuss BU often due to embarrassment, and healthcare providers may not address the symptom adequately due to the lack of awareness of validated tools and/or knowledge of the importance of assessing BU. The mechanism of BU in UC is multifactorial and includes inflammatory changes in the rectum that may be linked to hypersensitivity and reduced compliance of the rectum. Responsive and reliable patient-reported outcome measures of BU are needed to provide evidence of treatment benefits in clinical trials and facilitate communication in clinical practice. This review discusses the pathophysiology and clinical importance of BU in UC and its impact on the quality of life and psychosocial functioning. Patient-reported outcome measures developed to assess the severity of BU in UC are discussed alongside overviews of treatment options and clinical guidelines. Implications for the future management of UC from the perspective of BU are also explored.

Association of ulcerative colitis symptom severity and proctocolectomy with multidimensional patient-reported outcomes: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

The YOu and Ulcerative colitis: Registry and Social network (YOURS) is a large-scale, multicenter, patient-focused registry investigating the effects of lifestyle, psychological factors, and clinical practice patterns on patient-reported outcomes in patients with ulcerative colitis in Japan. In this initial cross-sectional baseline analysis, we comprehensively explored impacts of symptom severity or proctocolectomy on nine patient-reported outcomes.

METHODS

Patients receiving tertiary care at medical institutions were consecutively enrolled in the YOURS registry. The patients completed validated questionnaires on lifestyle, psychosocial factors, and disease-related symptoms. Severity of symptoms was classified with self-graded stool frequency and rectal bleeding scores (categories: remission, active disease [mild, moderate, severe]). The effects of symptom severity or proctocolectomy on nine scales for quality of life, fatigue, anxiety/depression, work productivity, and sleep were assessed by comparing standardized mean differences of the patient-reported outcome scores.

RESULTS

Of the 1971 survey responses analyzed, 1346 (68.3%) patients were in remission, 583 (29.6%) had active disease, and 42 (2.1%) had undergone proctocolectomy. A linear relationship between increasing symptom severity and worsening quality of life, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and work productivity was observed. Patients with even mild symptoms had worse scores than patients in remission. Patients who had undergone proctocolectomy also had worse scores than patients in remission.

CONCLUSIONS

Ulcerative colitis was associated with reduced mood, quality of life, fatigue, and work productivity even in patients with mild symptoms, suggesting that management of active ulcerative colitis may improve patient-reported outcomes irrespective of disease severity. (UMIN Clinical Trials Registry: UMIN000031995, https://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/index-j.htm ).

Patient-Reported Outcomes Correlate With Microbial Community Composition Independent of Mucosal Inflammation in Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease

BACKGROUND

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) involve an aberrant host response to intestinal microbiota causing mucosal inflammation and gastrointestinal symptoms. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are increasingly important in clinical care and research. Our aim was to examine associations between PROs and fecal microbiota in patients 0 to 22 years of age with IBD.

METHODS

A longitudinal, prospective, single-center study tested for associations between microbial community composition via shotgun metagenomics and PROs including stool frequency and rectal bleeding in ulcerative colitis (UC) and abdominal pain and stool frequency in Crohn's disease (CD). Mucosal inflammation was assessed with fecal calprotectin. A negative binomial mixed-effects model including clinical characteristics and fecal calprotectin tested for differentially abundant species and metabolic pathways by PROs.

RESULTS

In 70 CD patients with 244 stool samples, abdominal pain correlated with increased relative abundance of Haemophilus and reduced Clostridium spp. There were no differences relative to calprotectin level. In 23 UC patients with 76 samples, both rectal bleeding and increased stool frequency correlated with increased Klebsiella and reduced Bacteroides spp. Conversely, UC patients with lower calprotectin had reduced Klebsiella. Both UC and CD patients with active symptoms exhibited less longitudinal microbial community stability. No differences in metabolic pathways were observed in CD. Increased sulfoglycolysis and ornithine biosynthesis correlated with symptomatic UC.

CONCLUSIONS

Microbial community composition correlated with PROs in both CD and UC. Metabolic pathways differed relative to PROs in UC, but not CD. Data suggest that microbiota may contribute to patient symptoms in IBD, in addition to effects of mucosal inflammation.

Disease clearance in ulcerative colitis: Setting the therapeutic goals for future in the treatment of ulcerative colitis

Ulcerative colitis, one of the phenotypic patterns of inflammatory bowel disease, should be considered a progressive disease with an increased risk of complications if intestinal inflammation is not adequately controlled. The advent of new lines of treatment for this condition has changed and expanded the therapeutic goals to modify its natural history and evolution. The concept of "disease clearance" in ulcerative colitis aims to achieve clinical and biological remission as well as mucosal healing (endoscopic, histological, and in future molecular) in these patients. This review provides the available data on each of the goals of disease clearance in ulcerative colitis to be considered for application in clinical practice in the coming years.

Multicenter Real-world Experience of Upadacitinib in the Treatment of Crohn's Disease

BACKGROUND

Upadacitinib is a selective Janus kinase inhibitor approved for the management of ulcerative colitis and under evaluation for the management of Crohn's disease in phase 3 clinical trials.

AIMS

Our goal is to describe our real-world experience with upadacitinib in Crohn's disease.

METHODS

This is a two-center retrospective cohort study of adult patients with moderate to severe Crohn's disease on upadacitinib. The primary outcome was clinical response and remission as determined by stool frequency and abdominal pain scores. Secondary endpoints included endoscopic response and remission as determined by change in simple endoscopic score for Crohn's. Outcomes were assessed at three months after starting upadacitinib and at patients' most recent follow-up. We further evaluated adverse events and dose-related response.

RESULTS

A total of 45 Crohn's disease patients received upadacitinib and were included in the safety analysis. Thirty-six patients received upadacitinib for Crohn's disease, whereas 9 received it for inflammatory arthritis (n=8) or pyoderma (n=1). Thirty-three patients received upadacitinib for 3 months or longer and were included in the efficacy analysis. At 3-month follow up, 21 patients achieved clinical response (63.6%) and 9 achieved clinical remission (27.2%). At time of last follow-up, 23 patients had clinical response (69.7%), 10 achieved clinical remission (30.3%), and 4 (28.6%) achieved endoscopic remission. Adverse events occurred in 12 patients (26.7%). Two patients had a serious adverse event (4.5%) without associated mortality.

CONCLUSION

In this real-world cohort of highly refractory Crohn's disease patients, upadacitinib was effective in inducing remission and had an acceptable safety profile.

Urgency and Its Association With Quality of Life and Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Ulcerative Colitis

INTRODUCTION

Urgency, the immediate need to defecate, is common in active ulcerative colitis (UC). We investigated the association of urgency in patients with UC with (i) quality of life (QoL) domains and (ii) future hospitalizations, corticosteroid use, and colectomy for UC.

METHODS

We conducted a cross-sectional and subsequent longitudinal study within Inflammatory Bowel Disease Partners, a patient-powered research network. We described associations of levels of urgency in patients with UC with Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System QoL domains. We conducted a longitudinal cohort to determine associations between baseline urgency and subsequent hospitalization, corticosteroid use, or colectomy for UC within 12 months. We used bivariate statistics and logistic regression models to describe independent associations.

RESULTS

A total of 632 patients with UC were included in the cross-sectional study. After adjusting for clinical variables, rectal bleeding, and stool frequency, urgency defined as "hurry," "immediately," and "incontinence" increased the odds of social impairment (odds ratio [OR] 2.05 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.24-3.4, OR 2.76 95% CI 1.1-6.74, and OR 7.7 95% CI 1.66-38.3, respectively) compared with "no hurry." Urgency also significantly increased the odds of depression, anxiety, and fatigue. Urgency was associated with a significant increase in risk of hospitalizations and corticosteroids, whereas "hurry," "immediately," and "incontinence" increased the odds of colectomy within 12 months by 1.42 (1.15-1.75), 1.90 (1.45-2.50), and 3.69 (2.35-5.80).

DISCUSSION

We demonstrated that urgency is a patient-reported outcome independently associated with compromised QoL and future risk of hospitalizations, corticosteroids, and colectomy. Our findings support the consideration of urgency as a UC-specific patient-reported outcome and its use as an outcome in clinical trials to capture QoL and risk of clinical decompensation.

Mindfulness Practice Is Associated With Subjective Wellbeing Homeostasis Resilience in People With Crohn's Disease but Not Ulcerative Colitis

OBJECTIVES

People with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis (inflammatory bowel disease: IBD), commonly experience high levels of depressive symptoms and stress and low levels of subjective wellbeing (SWB). Mindfulness is increasingly considered an adjuvant IBD treatment. The relationships between depression, disease symptoms and mindfulness have not previously been considered within the theory of SWB homeostasis. This theory states that SWB is normally maintained by a homeostatic system around a setpoint range but can fail when psychological challenges dominate consciousness. This study explored the relationship among SWB and patient-reported psychological and IBD symptoms and investigated whether mindfulness practice is independently associated with SWB homeostatic resilience.

DESIGN

This cross-sectional study recruited participants through online IBD support groups.

METHODS

Participants (n = 739; 62% Crohn's disease) detailed symptoms of depression and stress, patient-reported disease symptoms, and regularity of mindfulness practice.

RESULTS

The sample had significantly lower SWB (hedges g = -0.98) than normative data. A logistic regression found mindfulness practice doubled the Crohn's disease participants' odds of reporting SWB within the normal homeostatic range, after controlling for psychological, physical, and demographic variables (OR 2.15, 95% CI: 1.27, 3.66). A one-point increase of patient-reported bowel symptoms reduced the participant's odds of reporting SWB in the normal homeostatic range by about a third (OR 0.66, 95% CI: 0.50, 0.85). However, the influence of mindfulness or disease symptoms on SWB was not observed for people with ulcerative colitis.

CONCLUSION

These findings provide initial evidence for an association between mindfulness and SWB homeostatic resilience in a clinical population.

Endoscopic tissue sampling - Part 2: Lower gastrointestinal tract. European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) Guideline

1: ESGE suggests performing segmental biopsies (at least two from each segment), which should be placed in different specimen containers (ileum, cecum, ascending, transverse, descending, and sigmoid colon, and rectum) in patients with clinical and endoscopic signs of colitis.Weak recommendation, low quality of evidence. 2: ESGE recommends taking two biopsies from the right hemicolon (ascending and transverse colon) and, in a separate container, two biopsies from the left hemicolon (descending and sigmoid colon) when microscopic colitis is suspected.Strong recommendation, low quality of evidence. 3: ESGE recommends pancolonic dye-based chromoendoscopy or virtual chromoendoscopy with targeted biopsies of any visible lesions during surveillance endoscopy in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Strong recommendation, moderate quality of evidence. 4: ESGE suggests that, in high risk patients with a history of colonic neoplasia, tubular-appearing colon, strictures, ongoing therapy-refractory inflammation, or primary sclerosing cholangitis, chromoendoscopy with targeted biopsies can be combined with four-quadrant non-targeted biopsies every 10 cm along the colon. Weak recommendation, low quality of evidence. 5: ESGE recommends that, if pouch surveillance for dysplasia is performed, visible abnormalities should be biopsied, with at least two biopsies systematically taken from each of the afferent ileal loop, the efferent blind loop, the pouch, and the anorectal cuff.Strong recommendation, low quality of evidence. 6: ESGE recommends that, in patients with known ulcerative colitis and endoscopic signs of inflammation, at least two biopsies be obtained from the worst affected areas for the assessment of activity or the presence of cytomegalovirus; for those with no evident endoscopic signs of inflammation, advanced imaging technologies may be useful in identifying areas for targeted biopsies to assess histologic remission if this would have therapeutic consequences. Strong recommendation, low quality of evidence. 7: ESGE suggests not biopsying endoscopically visible inflammation or normal-appearing mucosa to assess disease activity in known Crohn's disease.Weak recommendation, low quality of evidence. 8: ESGE recommends that adequately assessed colorectal polyps that are judged to be premalignant should be fully excised rather than biopsied.Strong recommendation, low quality of evidence. 9: ESGE recommends that, where endoscopically feasible, potentially malignant colorectal polyps should be excised en bloc rather than being biopsied. If the endoscopist cannot confidently perform en bloc excision at that time, careful representative images (rather than biopsies) should be taken of the potential focus of cancer, and the patient should be rescheduled or referred to an expert center.Strong recommendation, low quality of evidence. 10: ESGE recommends that, in malignant lesions not amenable to endoscopic excision owing to deep invasion, six carefully targeted biopsies should be taken from the potential focus of cancer.Strong recommendation, low quality of evidence.