Real-world impact of infliximab precision-guided dosing on management of patients with IBD.

Objectives: Evaluate the clinical utility of a precision-guided dosing test for infliximab (IFX) and its impact on treatment decision-making for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Study Design: Prospective, multisite, clinical experience program.

Methods: Health care providers were given access to PredictrPK IFX, a precision-guided dosing test, for their patients with IBD on maintenance IFX therapy.

Genetic coding variant in complement factor B (CFB) is associated with increased risk for perianal Crohn's disease and leads to impaired CFB cleavage and phagocytosis.

Objective: Perianal Crohn's disease (pCD) occurs in up to 40% of patients with CD and is associated with poor quality of life, limited treatment responses and poorly understood aetiology. We performed a genetic association study comparing CD subjects with and without perianal disease and subsequently performed functional follow-up studies for a pCD associated SNP in ().

Design: Immunochip-based meta-analysis on 4056 pCD and 11 088 patients with CD from three independent cohorts was performed.

Ewing's Sarcoma in a Patient with Crohn's Disease Treated with Ustekinumab: A Case Report.

Biologic therapies have revolutionized the treatment of immune-mediated diseases. They are generally well tolerated; however, there are reports of malignancies associated with the use of these drugs. This case is of an adolescent with refractory Crohn's disease treated with ustekinumab, who subsequently developed Ewing's sarcoma.

Out-of-pocket Cost Burden in Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Cross-sectional Cohort Analysis.

Background: Pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), consisting of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), can result in significant morbidity requiring frequent health care utilization. Although it is known that the overall financial impact of pediatric IBD is significant, the direct out-of-pocket (OOP) cost burden on the parents of children with IBD has not been explored. We hypothesized that affected children with a more relapsing disease course and families in lower income strata, ineligible for need-based assistance programs, disparately absorb ongoing financial stress.

Lactobacillus bacteremia associated with probiotic use in a pediatric patient with ulcerative colitis.

Probiotic strains of Lactobacillus are currently used in a variety of clinical practices with limited evidence to support their use. Lactobacillus species are a normal part of gastrointestinal flora, and bacteremia with probiotic strains of Lactobacillus is very uncommon. We describe a case of Lactobacillus bacteremia in a 17-year-old boy with ulcerative colitis managed with systemic corticosteroids and infliximab, who presented with fever to 102°F, flushing, and chills 1 week after starting Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG probiotics.

Postoperative complications and health care use in children undergoing surgery for ulcerative colitis.

Objectives: Medical and surgical approaches toward children with ulcerative colitis (UC) vary and have differing implications for health care use. The goal of this study was to define hospital use and complications for children with UC before and after staged restorative proctocolectomy.

Patients And Methods: A retrospective study of the California Patient Discharge Dataset from 1999 to 2007 of children aged 2 to 18 years with UC who underwent colectomy was performed (N = 218).

Predictors of proctocolectomy in children with ulcerative colitis.

Objectives: Few clinical predictors are associated with definitive proctocolectomy in children with ulcerative colitis (UC). The purpose of the present study was to identify clinical predictors associated with surgery in children with UC using a disease-specific database.

Methods: Children diagnosed with UC at age <18 years were identified using the Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Consortium (PediIBDC) database.

Oral tacrolimus for steroid-dependent and steroid-resistant ulcerative colitis in children.

Purpose: To evaluate tacrolimus in 3 situations: for the induction of remission in children with severe steroid-resistant ulcerative colitis (UC); for steroid sparing in children with steroid-dependent UC in whom treatment with other immunosuppressants fails; and for the maintenance of remission in children with steroid-dependent and steroid-resistant UC.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 18 consecutive patients (13 with pancolitis) who were treated with oral tacrolimus at our institution from May 1999 to October 2005. Nine patients had steroid-resistant UC and 9 patients were steroid-dependent.