Response to Mesalamine Therapy in Pediatric Collagenous Gastritis and Colitis: A Case Report and Review.

Collagenous gastritis and collagenous colitis are 2 rare gastrointestinal disorders in pediatric patients. Both of these disease processes exist on a clinical spectrum, and are extremely rare to be present together in the pediatric population. Due to the rarity and unknown etiology of these disease processes, standardized treatment protocols and objective clinical biomarkers of disease progression are missing. This is the first report to describe a 16 year old female with CG and CC who responded well to mesalamine therapy, evident by decreasing calprotectin levels after initiation of therapy.

The Use of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in the Management of Severe Radiation-Induced Hemorrhagic Gastritis in a Pediatric Patient.

Radiation-induced hemorrhagic gastritis is a serious and rare complication of radiation therapy. Optimal therapies in the pediatric population are not well established. We report a 2-year-old female diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma who developed hemorrhagic gastritis following chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The patient presented with acute onset anemia, hematemesis, and melena. Endoscopies revealed circumferential ulceration at the pylorus with spontaneous oozing that failed to respond effectively with multimodal medical and endoscopic therapies. Following hemodynamic stabilization, the patient was treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy with excellent clinical response of the bleeding. Further research on the benefit of hyperbaric oxygen therapy is warranted to determine if this treatment can reduce the incidence of gastrointestinal complications in patients who have received radiation therapy.

Health Maintenance Consensus for Adults With Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

BACKGROUND: With the management of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) becoming increasingly complex, incorporating preventive care health maintenance measures can be challenging. The aim of developing these updated recommendations is to provide more specific details to facilitate their use into a busy clinical practice setting. METHOD: Fifteen statements were formulated with recommendations regarding the target, timing, and frequency of the health maintenance interventions in patients with IBD. We used a modified Delphi method and a literature review to establish a consensus among the panel of experts. The appropriateness of each health maintenance statement was rated on a scale of 1 to 5 (1-2 as inappropriate, and 4-5 as appropriate) by each panelist. Interventions were considered appropriate, and statements were accepted if ≥80% of the panelists agreed with a score ≥4. RESULTS: The panel approved 15 health maintenance recommendations for adults with IBD based on the current literature and expert opinion. These recommendations include explicit details regarding specific screening tools, timing of screening, and vaccinations for adults with IBD. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with IBD are at an increased risk for infections, malignancies, and other comorbidities. Given the complexity of caring for patients with IBD, this focused list of recommendations can be easily incorporated in to clinical care to help eliminate the gap in preventative care for patients with IBD.

Liver transplantation and the management of progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis in children.

Progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) is a constellation of inherited disorders that result in the impairment of bile flow through the liver that predominantly affects children. The accumulation of bile results in progressive liver damage, and if left untreated leads to end stage liver disease and death. Patients often present with worsening jaundice and pruritis within the first few years of life. Many of these patients will progress to end stage liver disease and require liver transplantation. The role and timing of liver transplantation still remains debated especially in the management of PFIC1. In those patients who are appropriately selected, liver transplantation offers an excellent survival benefit. Appropriate timing and selection of patients for liver transplantation will be discussed, and the short and long term management of patients post liver transplantation will also be described.

"Weighing the risk": Obesity and outcomes following liver transplantation.

Obesity is on the rise worldwide. As a result, unprecedented rates of patients are presenting with end stage liver disease in the setting of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and are requiring liver transplantation. There are significant concerns that the risk factors associated with obesity and the metabolic syndrome might have a detrimental effect on the long term outcomes following liver transplantation. In general, short term patient and graft outcomes for both obese and morbidly obese patients are comparable with that of non-obese patients, however, several studies report an increase in peri-operative morbidity and increased length of stay. Continued studies documenting the long-term outcomes from liver transplantation are needed to further examine the risk of recurrent disease (NAFLD) and also further define the role risk factors such cardiovascular disease might play long term. Effective weight reduction in the post liver transplant setting may mitigate the risks associated with the metabolic syndrome long-term.

Gene expression in mononuclear cells from patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

OBJECTIVES: Discovery of Nod2 as the inflammatory bowel disease 1 (IBD1) susceptibility gene has brought to light the significance of mononuclear cells in inflammatory bowel disease pathogenesis. The purpose of this study was to examine changes in gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in patients with untreated Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) as compared to patients with other inflammatory gastrointestinal disorders and to healthy controls. METHODS: We used a 2400 gene cDNA glass slide array (MICROMAX) to examine gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from seven patients with Crohn's disease, five patients with ulcerative colitis, 10 patients with other inflammatory gastrointestinal disorders, and 22 age- and sex-matched controls. Results. Novel categories of genes differentially expressed in Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis patients included genes regulating hematopoietic cell differentiation and leukemogenesis, lipid raft-associated signaling, the actin cytoskeleton, and vesicular trafficking. CONCLUSIONS: Altered gene expression in mononuclear cells may contribute to inflammatory bowel disease pathogenesis.