Predictors of Response to Exclusive Enteral Nutrition in Newly Diagnosed Crohn´s Disease in Children: PRESENCE Study from SEGHNP.

Exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) has been shown to be more effective than corticosteroids in achieving mucosal healing in children with Crohn´s disease (CD) without the adverse effects of these drugs. The aims of this study were to determine the efficacy of EEN in terms of inducing clinical remission in children newly diagnosed with CD, to describe the predictive factors of response to EEN and the need for treatment with biological agents during the first 12 months of the disease. We conducted an observational retrospective multicentre study that included paediatric patients newly diagnosed with CD between 2014-2016 who underwent EEN. Two hundred and twenty-two patients (140 males) from 35 paediatric centres were included, with a mean age at diagnosis of 11.6 ± 2.5 years. The median EEN duration was 8 weeks (IQR 6.6-8.5), and 184 of the patients (83%) achieved clinical remission (weighted paediatric Crohn's Disease activity index [wPCDAI] < 12.5). Faecal calprotectin (FC) levels (µg/g) decreased significantly after EEN (830 [IQR 500-1800] to 256 [IQR 120-585] p < 0.0001). Patients with wPCDAI ≤ 57.5, FC < 500 µg/g, CRP >15 mg/L and ileal involvement tended to respond better to EEN. EEN administered for 6-8 weeks is effective for inducing clinical remission. Due to the high response rate in our series, EEN should be used as the first-line therapy in luminal paediatric Crohn's disease regardless of the location of disease and disease activity.

[Aetiology, outcomes and prognostic indicators of paediatric acute liver failure]. / Etiología, resultados e indicadores pronósticos del fallo hepático agudo pediátrico.

INTRODUCTION: Acute liver failure (ALF) is a multisystem disease with severe impairment of liver function of acute onset. The Paediatric End-stage Liver Disease (PELD) score is used as a predictor of mortality in chronic liver disease, however experience is limited in ALF. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the aetiology and outcomes of children with ALF in a Children's Liver Transplant Centre, and to investigate the validity of PELD as a prognostic indicator. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted on patients diagnosed with ALF in our hospital from 2000 to 2013 using the criteria of the Paediatric ALF Study Group. RESULTS: The study included 49 patients with an age range 0-14years. The most frequent aetiologies were: indeterminate (36.7%) and metabolic (26.5%). Liver transplant (LT) was required by 42.8%, and there were 16.3% deaths. Patients with higher levels of bilirubin, INR, or encephalopathy were more likely to require a liver transplant, yielding an OR for INR 1.93. A cut-off of 27 in the PELD score according to the ROC curve showed a sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 85%, predicting a worse outcome (AUC: 0.90; P<.001). The survival of patients with ALF without transplantation seems more likely in those who have low values of PELD and absence of encephalopathy, with a RR of 0.326. CONCLUSIONS: ALF patients with a high PELD score and the presence of encephalopathy had worse outcomes. The PELD score could be a useful tool to establish the optimum time for inclusion in the transplant list, however further studies are still needed.