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A 62-year-old woman, originally from Peru, with rheumatoid arthritis under treatment with anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapy, was admitted due to constitutional syndrome and suspicion of neoplasia. Computed tomography (CT) scan revealed involvement of three segments of the colon, ascites, and likely peritoneal implants. Ascitic fluid analysis showed elevated adenosine deaminase (ADA) levels and lymphocytosis. The patient presented with hematemesis and hematochezia with hemodynamic instability. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy identified an extensive ulcer in the middle esophagus with a granular base, elevated and defined edges, indeterminate for malignancy and without blood residues. Colonoscopy also revealed multiple extensive ulcers in the transverse colon, with whitish bases and thickened and necrotic-looking surrounding mucosal edges. Histology showed granulomas and yeast-like fungal structures with methenamine silver staining in both tissues, consistent with disseminated histoplasmosis. Antifungal treatment was initiated with good clinical evolution.

Background: The rates of clinical and biochemical responses in Crohn's disease (CD) patients treated with intravenous (IV) ustekinumab (UST) intensification are scarcely described., Methods: Patients with diagnosis of CD who were under intensified IV ustekinumab treatment (130 mg every 4 weeks) were retrospectively included, evaluating the clinical and biochemical response 12 weeks after the change in treatment regimen (switch from SC to IV), as well as the serum levels of the drug., Results: Twenty-seven patients, all of whom had transitioned to intensified intravenous ustekinumab treatment due to a secondary loss of response to the drug, were included in the retrospective analysis. At the baseline visit, prior to changing IV UST, differences in levels were observed between intensified and non-intensified patients (7216 vs. 2842 ng/mL, p = 0.00005). However, no significant differences were found between these two groups 12 weeks after IV intensification (7949 vs. 7937 ng/mL; p = 0.99). In patients with previous intensified UST SC, a decrease in fecal calprotectin was observed 12 weeks after starting IV intensification, going from a mean of 1463 ug/g to 751 ug/g, although the differences were not significant ( p = 0.14)., Conclusion: In our experience, intensifying treatment with IV UST leads to clinical and biochemical improvements in CD patients with a secondary loss of response to SC maintenance with this drug, and an increase in drug levels was observed 12 weeks after IV UST intensification.

Background and Aims: response to the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine can be altered in patients with immune-mediated diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, and in patients under immunosuppressive treatment. The aims of this study were to evaluate the serologic response to the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, to analyze the influence of immunosuppressive drugs on response, and to describe any adverse events in this population., Methods: this was a prospective study that included adult patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Baseline characteristics, concomitant treatments and previous COVID-19 symptoms were collected. Patients underwent serological testing before the first and after the second vaccine dose., Results: a total of 265 patients were consecutively included. Patients received one of the following vaccines: messenger RNA vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna; and adenovirus vaccines from AstraZeneca and Janssen. All adverse events were mild, and the most frequent was injection site pain in 141 (86 %) patients. The seroconversion rate according to the treatment that patients were receiving was: 100 % for those without treatment, 92.5 % for patients treated with mesalazine, 90.3 % for those receiving immunomodulators, 88.9 % for patients with biological monotherapy and 92.5 % for patients on combined treatment. The generation of antibodies according to the vaccine administered was: Pfizer 92.9 %, Moderna 93.3 %, AstraZeneca 98.4 %, and Janssen 12.5 %., Conclusion: the antibody response after vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 is high in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. However, patients treated with immunosuppressive or biologic drugs had a lower response. Adverse events were frequent, but not serious.

It is presented a case study of intestinal affectation on a patient under tocilizumab treatment for giant cell arteritis.

Background and Aims: Patients with colonic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have a high risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). Current guidelines recommend endoscopic surveillance, yet epidemiological studies show poor compliance. The aims of our study were to analyse adherence to endoscopic surveillance, its impact on advanced colorectal lesions, and risk factors of non-adherence., Methods: A retrospective multicentre study of IBD patients with criteria for CRC surveillance, diagnosed between 2005 and 2008 and followed up to 2020, was performed. Following European guidelines, patients were stratified into risk groups and adherence was considered when surveillance was performed according to the recommendations (±1 year). Cox-proportional regression analyses were used to compare the risk of lesions. p-values below 0.05 were considered significant., Results: A total of 1031 patients (732 ulcerative colitis, 259 Crohn's disease and 40 indeterminate colitis; mean age of 36 ± 15 years) were recruited from 25 Spanish centres. Endoscopic screening was performed in 86% of cases. Adherence to guidelines was 27% (95% confidence interval, CI = 24-29). Advanced lesions and CRC were detected in 38 (4%) and 7 (0.7%) patients respectively. Adherence was associated with increased detection of advanced lesions (HR = 3.59; 95% CI = 1.3-10.1; p = 0.016). Risk of delay or non-performance of endoscopic follow-up was higher as risk groups increased (OR = 3.524; 95% CI = 2.462-5.044; p < 0.001 and OR = 4.291; 95%CI = 2.409-7.644; p < 0.001 for intermediate- and high- vs low-risk groups)., Conclusions: Adherence to endoscopic surveillance allows earlier detection of advanced lesions but is low. Groups at higher risk of CRC are associated with lower adherence., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Introduction: hepatitis C patients loss to follow-up in the health care system has been shown to have negative consequences. This study aimed to investigate this issue as regards primary biliary cholangitis., Methods: the databases (immunology, biochemistry, clinical reports, drug dispensation, appointments) of 4 reference hospitals in Spain (serving a population of 1,450,000 inhabitants) were analyzed. The diagnosis of primary biliary cholangitis was based on an antimitochondrial antibody titer ≥ 1:80, chronically elevated alkaline phosphatase, and the absence of other liver disease. Patients were classified as lost in the absence of reports indicating a diagnosis, specific medical follow-up, and/or treatment with bile salts., Results: a total of 1372 patients with antimitochondrial antibody titers ≥ 1:80 were included between January 2010 and June 2019. A total of 697 (50.8 %) were classified as having primary biliary cholangitis, and 100 patients (14.3 %; 95 % CI: 11.8-17.2) were identified as lost. Of these, 30 were contacted and retrieved. The median age was 70 years, 93 % were female, median alkaline phosphatase was 185 IU/L, 10 % had pruritus, and 27 % had a transient elastography value > 9.5 kPa. The disease was confirmed and ursodeoxycholic acid was started in all 30 patients. Death was liver-related in 6 of the 100 patients classified as lost., Conclusion: up to 14.3 % of patients (1 out of 7) with a definitive diagnosis of primary biliary cholangitis remain undiagnosed, thus preventing monitoring and treatment. More than a quarter are at risk of advanced liver disease and its complications. Patients lost in the system must be identified and retrieved, and searching hospital databases is a suitable approach to meet this goal.

Background: The impact of biologics on the risk of postoperative complications (PC) in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is still an ongoing debate. This lack of evidence is more relevant for ustekinumab and vedolizumab., Aims: To evaluate the impact of biologics on the risk of PC., Methods: A retrospective study was performed in 37 centres. Patients treated with biologics within 12 weeks before surgery were considered "exposed". The impact of the exposure on the risk of 30-day PC and the risk of infections was assessed by logistic regression and propensity score-matched analysis., Results: A total of 1535 surgeries were performed on 1370 patients. Of them, 711 surgeries were conducted in the exposed cohort (584 anti-TNF, 58 vedolizumab and 69 ustekinumab). In the multivariate analysis, male gender (OR: 1.5; 95% CI: 1.2-2.0), urgent surgery (OR: 1.6; 95% CI: 1.2-2.2), laparotomy approach (OR: 1.5; 95% CI: 1.1-1.9) and severe anaemia (OR: 1.8; 95% CI: 1.3-2.6) had higher risk of PC, while academic hospitals had significantly lower risk. Exposure to biologics (either anti-TNF, vedolizumab or ustekinumab) did not increase the risk of PC (OR: 1.2; 95% CI: 0.97-1.58), although it could be a risk factor for postoperative infections (OR 1.5; 95% CI: 1.03-2.27)., Conclusions: Preoperative administration of biologics does not seem to be a risk factor for overall PC, although it may be so for postoperative infections.

Introduction: the "treat to target" strategy for the management of patients with Crohn's disease (CD) requires simple, reliable and non-invasive tools for continuous monitoring of the disease. Intestinal ultrasound has been proposed as an emerging technique that could be very useful in this field., Material and Methods: patients who had undergone an intestinal ultrasound in the clinical practice between February 2013 and October 2018 at our hospital were retrospectively included. The evolution of the patients during follow-up was assessed based on the presence of ultrasound activity and the therapeutic changes based on the results., Results: two hundred and seventy-seven CD patients were included and the median follow-up time was 24 months (range 5-73 months). Signs of ultrasound inflammatory activity were identified in 166 patients (60 %), and of them, treatment was escalated in 116 patients (70 %) based on the results of the ultrasound. Among patients with identified ultrasound activity, in 166 patients (60 %) the evolution was less favorable than in those without activity, with a shorter time until the next outbreak. Thus, the median disease-free survival (without outbreaks) after performing the ultrasound was 18 months when ultrasound activity was identified (although in most of the patients [70 %] the treatment had been escalated) vs 47 months in patients without ultrasound activity. However, these differences were not statistically significant (p < 0.0001). Among the 111 patients without ultrasound activity, those who achieved "parietal healing" (74 patients) had a better evolution with a 12 % subsequent outbreak vs 27 % during follow-up (p = 0.05). Thus, 15 % of patients with parietal healing had an outbreak vs 34 % of those who had not normalized the ultrasound findings after three years of follow-up., Conclusion: intestinal ultrasound is a technique capable of detecting inflammatory activity in patients with Crohn's disease and the presence of ultrasound activity is a risk factor for a new outbreak of activity and/or clinical relapse. Likewise, the presence of "parietal or transmural healing" (PH) is associated with a better evolution of patients during follow-up. Thus, it could be a more precise objective to consider deep remission in CD, with intestinal ultrasound being a useful technique for this purpose.

Introduction: the Rutgeerts score is used to assess post-surgical recurrence of Crohn's disease (CD). The score initially consisted of four grades, with a subsequent sub-classification of grade 2, under which ulcers confined to the anastomosis (i2a) are considered to be of a probable ischemic origin. The aim of this study was to assess whether ulcers confined to the anastomosis appear at the same frequency in patients undergoing surgery for other causes and can therefore be attributed to post-surgical changes., Material and Methods: this was a retrospective cohort study with patients who had undergone colonoscopy as per clinical practice between 2017 and 2018. There were two cohorts, one cohort of patients to assess the post-surgical recurrence of CD and another cohort for follow-up after colorectal cancer (CRC) treated with ileocolonic anastomosis., Results: a total of 185 patients were included; 33 % had undergone surgery for CD and 67 % had undergone surgery for CRC. Fifty-six percent of patients were male. Of the patients in the group with ulcers confined to the anastomosis, 75 % had CD and 25 % had been operated on for CRC; the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.0001). In turn, of the patients operated on for CRC, 95 % had no anastomotic lesions compared to 18 % of patients with CD. These differences reached statistical significance (p < 0.0001)., Conclusions: In our experience, the occurrence of ulcers on the ileocolonic anastomosis is uncommon in patients that have undergone surgery for CRC, in comparison to patients operated on due to CD. It is possible that these alterations in CD cannot therefore be attributed to solely ischemic or post-surgical phenomena.

Background and aims  Diagnosis and monitoring of ulcerative colitis (UC) includes conventional colonoscopy. This procedure is invasive and does not exclude small-bowel Crohn's disease (CD). Current therapeutic goals include mucosal healing which may lead to an increased number of endoscopic procedures in many patients. The small-bowel colon capsule endoscopy (SBC-CE) system visualizes the small bowel and colon. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance and adverse events of SBC-CE in patients with UC. Methods  This was a prospective, feasibility study involving two study sites. Patients with active UC underwent SBC-CE and colonoscopy. Kappa statistics were performed to assess the agreement between SBC-CE and colonoscopy. Adverse events (AEs) data were collected throughout and following the procedure. Results  In total, 30 consecutive patients were recruited, and 23 of those were included in the final analysis. For the primary end point, evaluation of the extent of UC disease in the colon, the percent agreement between SBC-CE and colonoscopy was moderate (56.5 %); kappa coefficient 0.42. The percent agreement between SBC-CE and colonoscopy for UC disease activity, based on Mayo endoscopic sub-score, was 95.7 %; kappa coefficient 0.86. Disease activity in the more proximal small bowel was detected in two patients with SBC-CE. No SBC-CE device-related AEs were reported. Conclusions  When comparing SBC-CE to conventional colonoscopy, there was a moderate agreement for the extent of UC disease and a very good overall agreement between the two modalities for UC disease activity.

Introduction: simple, reliable and non-invasive biomarkers are needed to enable the early detection of inflammatory activity for the correct management of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). One of these biomarkers may be serum calprotectin (SC)., Material and Methods: a prospective study was performed of patients with IBD due to undergo a colonoscopy as part of the common clinical practice. The study parameters included SC, fecal calprotectin (FC) and conventional blood test parameters. Clinical indices (Harvey and Walmsley) and relevant endoscopic scores were completed for each scenario (Simple Endoscopic Score Crohn Disease [SES-CD] and Mayo)., Results: fifty-three patients were included in the study, 51% (27 patients) with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 49% (26 patients) with Crohn's disease (CD). The CS values in UC were significantly higher with an endoscopic Mayo score 2/3 (median score 10.39 mg/ml [IQR: 7.4-12.2]) compared to those with a Mayo score of 0/1 (median 4.07 mg/ml [IQR: 2.9-7.2]) (p = 0.01). The area under the ROC curve (AUCROC) was 0.85 and the sensitivity and specificity were 83.3% and 81.25%, respectively, for a SC cut-off point of 4.4 mg/dl. Furthermore, a higher AUCROC was obtained in comparison with other serological markers for activity (C-reactive protein [CRP], erythrocyte sedimentation rate [ESR], hemoglobin [Hb] and platelets). There were no statistically significant differences in the comparison between SC and endoscopic findings in CD (SES CD > 3: 20.1 [IQR: 16.8-23.4] vs SESC ≤ 3:6.25 [IQR: 5.4-7.1]) (p = 0.8)., Conclusions: SC is a good indirect marker of inflammatory activity and there was a correlation with endoscopic findings in UC. However, there were no statistically significant differences in the case of CD.

We report the case of a male with no medical history with acute cholangitis secondary to a pancreatic head´s mass suggestive of neoplasm. An EUS-FNA was performed where no atypical cells were identified but a granulomatous component did. The patient was finally diagnosed of disseminated tuberculosis with pancreatic involvement. Pancreatic tuberculosis is an infrequent entity that requires a high index of suspicion due to the variability of its forms of presentation and the high morbidity and mortality without targeted therapy.

Major intrahepatic venous shunts are rare conditions where a communication between hepatic veins and intrahepatic portal vessels is established. Potential spontaneous development has been proposed in patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension (PHT).

Introduction: The possibility of developing idiopathic portal hypertension has been described with thiopurine treatment despite compromises the prognosis of these patients, the fact its true prevalence is unknown., Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a cohort of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients followed at our unit, to determine the prevalence of diagnosis of idiopathic portal hypertension (IPH) and its relationship with thiopurine treatment., Results: At the time of the analysis, 927/1,419 patients were under treatment with thiopurine drugs (65%). A total of 4 patients with IBD type Crohn's disease with idiopathic portal hypertension probably related to the thiopurine treatment were identified (incidence of 4.3 cases per 1,000). Seventy-five percent of patients started with signs or symptoms of portal hypertension. Only one patient was asymptomatic but the diagnosis of IPH because of isolated thrombocytopenia is suspected. However, note that all patients had thrombocytopenia previously. Abdominal ultrasound with fibroscan, hepatic vein catheterization and liver biopsy were performed on all of them as part of the etiology of portal hypertension. In the abdominal ultrasound, indirect portal hypertension data were observed in all patients (as splenomegaly) cirrhosis was also ruled out. The fibroscan data showed significant liver fibrosis (F2-F3)., Conclusion: Idiopathic portal hypertension following thiopurine treatment in IBD patients is a rare occurrence, but it must be borne in mind in the differential diagnosis for early diagnosis, especially in patients undergoing thiopurine treatment over a long period. The presence of thrombocytopenia is often the only predictor of its development in the preclinical stage.

Objective: to describe the experience at two tertiary centres during the first year of use of magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) for the management of Crohn's disease (CD): indications and influence of the technique in clinical decision making., Materials and Methods: retrospective descriptive study in which patients who underwent MRE were included consecutively. Epidemiological and clinical data were collected from the patients, as well as the indication for the study and how it influenced clinical decision making in the 10 days following the radiological study., Results: 24 MREs were performed in suspected CD and 126 known CD; partial bowel obstruction in 53 patients (42%), monitoring of medical treatment in 34 (27%), due to incomplete ileocolonoscopy in 16 (13%), extension study of the small intestine in 15 (12%) and suspected complicated CD in 8 patients (6%). The MRE influenced in a change in treatment in 83 (55.3%) patients: 16 (10.7%) started with immunosuppressants, 41 (27.3%) with anti-TNFα were started on or switched, 15 (10%) were ordered surgery and in 3 (2%) changed from combined therapy to monotherapy. The MRE had less influence on clinical decision making in the group in which the indication was suspected CD (p < 0.05)., Conclusions: the use of MRE helped on decision making in more than half of patients, especially with regards to decisions related to the use of biological therapies and the indication for surgery. MRE was less useful in suspected CD patients.