A Case of Crohn's Disease with Cardiac Tamponade Caused by Tuberculous Pericarditis: Assessment of a Rare Phenomenon.

A 28-year-old woman was hospitalized for cardiac tamponade caused by tuberculous pericarditis. She was taking ustekinumab (UST) for Crohn's disease. UST is not considered to significantly increase the risk of developing serious infections, including tuberculosis. However, there is still a risk of Mycobacterium tuberculosis reactivation. Therefore, for patients on concurrent UST and antituberculosis medication, a close collaboration among specialists in infectious diseases, cardiology, and gastroenterology is necessary.

Endoscopic score vs blood cell indices for determining timing of immunomodulator withdrawal in quiescent ulcerative colitis.

While immunomodulators (IMs) are used as key drugs in remission maintenance treatment for ulcerative colitis (UC), there has been no evidence to date for determining monitoring methods and drug withdrawal. Therefore, we examined if a decrease in white blood cell count (WBC) and an elevation in mean cell volume (MCV) could be used as optimization indices and if mucosal healing (MH) could be a rationale for determining the time of IM withdrawal. Subjects were 89 UC patients who were using IMs and for whom clinical remission had been maintained. Those with a Rachmilewitz Clinical Activity Index score of 4 or lower and those with a Mayo endoscopic subscore (MES) of 0 or 1 were defined as MH. The remission maintenance rates of the following comparative groups were examined: an IM continuation group and an IM withdrawal group; an IM continuation group with a WBC of less than 3000 or a MCV of 100 or greater and an IM continuation group with a WBC of 3000 or greater and a MCV of 99 or lower; an IM continuation group of patients for whom MH had been achieved and an IM continuation group of patients for whom MH had not been achieved; and an IM withdrawal group with a MES of 0 and an IM withdrawal group with a MES of 1. A significantly higher remission maintenance rate was observed in the IM continuation group compared to the withdrawal group (p < 0.01). No significant difference was observed between the IM continuation group with a WBC of less than 3000 or a MCV of 100 or greater and the IM continuation group with a WBC of 3000 or greater and a MCV of 99 or lower (p = 0.08). Higher remission maintenance rates were observed in the IM continuation group of patients for whom MH had been achieved compared to the IM continuation group of patients for whom MH had not been achieved (p = 0.03). No significant difference was observed between the IM withdrawal group with MES 0 and the IM withdrawal group with MES 1. (p = 0.48). This retrospective study showed that remission maintenance could be firmly obtained by continuing IM administration in case of endoscopic MH; however, MH was not an indicator of IM withdrawal.

Two-year assessment of the efficacy and safety of sitagliptin in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes: Post hoc analysis of the ASSET-K study.

BACKGROUND: There have only been a few reports about use of dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), suggesting that the safety of these agents has not been sufficiently demonstrated. We performed a comparative review of the efficacy and safety of sitagliptin for Japanese patients with T2DM managed in the real-world clinical setting. METHODS: An age-stratified analysis was performed of 831 patients who were treated with sitagliptin for 2 years. Parameters assessed included the hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), body weight, serum creatinine, and adverse events. HbA1c and the incidence of hypoglycemia were also evaluated in patients treated with sitagliptin and a sulfonylurea (SU), who were divided into three age groups (<65 years, 65-74 years, and ≥75 years). RESULTS: Comparison of glycemic control parameters, laboratory values, and adverse events revealed significant improvement of HbA1c, casual postprandial plasma glucose, and fasting plasma glucose in each age group with no change in body weight. Serum creatinine increased significantly in all age groups. Hypoglycemia only occurred in patients who received combined treatment with an SU and sitagliptin, and there was no age-related difference in its incidence. CONCLUSIONS: HbA1c was improved by 2 years of sitagliptin therapy in all three age groups, and age did not seem to influence the incidence of hypoglycemic events. These results confirm the efficacy and safety of sitagliptin in patients ≥ 75 years old, suggesting that it is also useful for treating elderly patients with T2DM.