Hepatitis E infection with a benign course during vedolizumab treatment for Crohn's disease: A case report.

We present a 49 year old female patient with Crohn's disease (CD) in remission on vedolizumab therapy who experienced a symptomatic, though benign, course of acute hepatitis E. Routine blood tests showed substantial elevation of liver enzymes and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing confirmed hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection. Vedolizumab therapy was paused, liver enzymes improved three weeks after infection and normalized after six months. The patient recovered completely from mild symptoms. This case shows that hepatitis E is a potential cause of acute hepatitis during vedolizumab therapy, and in this case the infection has run a benign course.

The incidence of Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma in the United Kingdom and The Netherlands is levelling off.

BACKGROUND: Barrett's oesophagus (BO) is a risk factor for oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC). Several studies report increasing incidences of BO with substantial variation. AIM: To determine age- and sex-stratified incidence rates (IR) of BO and OAC. METHODS: Cohort study using two primary care databases in the United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands (NL) (2000-2012). BO and OAC cases were identified using disease-specific READ codes (UK) and free-text search with manual validation (NL). Age- and sex-specific incidence rates (IRs) were calculated for both BO and OAC. RESULTS: From the study population of 6,885,420 subjects in the UK, we identified 12,312 incident BO and 40 (0.3%) subsequent incident OAC cases. There were 1383 incident BO, and subsequent 5 (0.4%) incident OAC cases among the 1,487,191 subjects in the NL. The IR of BO increased linearly with age: 15.6/100,000 PYs (UK) and 23.7/100,000 PYs (NL) for patients aged 40-44 years, increasing to 85.6/100,000 PYs (UK) and 87.0/100,000 PYs (NL) for 70-74 years. In both the UK and the NL, IR of BO was 2-4 times higher in males than females across all age groups. With respect to calendar time, the IR of BO increased by 35% (UK) and 41% (NL) from 2000 to 2003, after which IRs remained stable until 2012. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence rates of BO in the UK and the NL increased until 2003, but levelled off thereafter. Around 0.3% of patients with BO developed OAC at least 1 year after BO diagnosis. These findings may help tailor endoscopic surveillance strategies among patients with BO.

Cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors or nonselective NSAIDs plus gastroprotective agents: what to prescribe in daily clinical practice?

BACKGROUND: Two strategies for prevention of upper gastrointestinal (UGI) events for nonselective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (nsNSAID) users are replacement of the nsNSAID by a cyclo-oxygenase-2-selective inhibitor (coxib) or co-prescription of a gastroprotective agent (GPA). AIM: To identify whether and in whom either of these strategies should be preferred in daily practice. METHODS: A nested case-control study was conducted using three European primary care databases. We selected a cohort including all naive nsNSAID+GPA (≥80% GPA adherence) and coxib users (without GPA use) aged ≥50 years. Cases with an UGI event (i.e. symptomatic UGI ulcer or bleeding) were matched to cohort members without an UGI event on age, sex and number of individual UGI risk factors (i.e. UGI event history, age ≥65 years, concomitant use of anticoagulants, antiplatelets, or glucocorticoids) and calendar time. Conditional logistic regression analysis was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CI, while adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS: Within the NSAID cohort (n = 617,220), 398 UGI cases were identified. The risk of UGI events was equivalent for coxib and nsNSAID+GPA (≥80% adherence) users (OR: 1.02; 95%CI: 0.77-1.37). In concurrent glucocorticoid users, the risk of UGI events was significantly elevated for nsNSAID+GPA (≥80% adherence) compared with coxib users (OR: 9.01; 95%CI: 1.61-50.50). CONCLUSIONS: The risk of UGI events was similar in nsNSAID+GPA (≥80% adherence) and coxibs users. In patients concurrently using glucocorticoids, a significant increase in the risk of UGI events for nsNSAID+GPA users was observed and coxibs should be preferred.

Prescription of nonselective NSAIDs, coxibs and gastroprotective agents in the era of rofecoxib withdrawal - a 617,400-patient study.

BACKGROUND: Gastroprotective strategies are recommended for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) users at risk of upper gastrointestinal (UGI) complications. AIM: To compare the use of gastroprotective strategies in NSAID users in three countries, and the subsequent impact of rofecoxib withdrawal. METHODS: We conducted a population-based cohort study in three general practice (GP) databases: (i) United Kingdom's (UK) GP Research Database (1998-2008); (ii) Italy's (IT) Health Search/CSD Longitudinal Patient Database (2000-2007); and (iii) the Dutch (NL) Integrated Primary Care Information database (1996-2006). Study cohorts comprised incident NSAID users ≥50 years. Preventive strategies included: (i) co-prescription of gastroprotective agents; or (ii) cyclooxygenase-2-selective inhibitor use. Under-use was defined as no gastroprotection in patients with ≥1 UGI risk factor (history of UGI event, age ≥65 years, concomitant use of anticoagulants, antiplatelets or glucocorticoids). Interrupted time-series analysis was performed to assess the impact of rofecoxib withdrawal on preventive strategies. RESULTS: The study populations consisted of 384 649 UK, 177 747 IT and 55 004 NL NSAID users. In UK, under-use of preventive strategies fell from 91% to 71% [linear trend (lt) P = 0.001], in NL from 92% to 58% (lt P < 0.001) and in IT from 90% to 76% (lt P = 0.38) in high-risk NSAID users. In 2000 and 2006, under-use was significantly lower in NL compared with UK and IT (P < 0.001) in high-risk users. After rofecoxib's withdrawal, under-use increased significantly in UK and NL. CONCLUSIONS: The prescription of gastropreventive strategies followed a similar pattern across countries. Despite a temporary negative effect of rofecoxib withdrawal on under-use, improvement of gastroprotection with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs was observed.