Aim: To evaluate if a single and/or combined (clinical, endoscopic and radiological) assessment could predict clinical outcomes in Crohn’s disease (CD). Methods: We prospectively evaluated 57 CD cases who underwent both a colonoscopy and a CT-enterography (CTE). Harvey-Bradshaw Index (HBi), SES-CD (and/or Rutgeerts score) and the radiological disease activity were defined to stratify patients according to clinical, endoscopic and radiological disease activity respectively. Hospitalizations, surgery, therapeutic changes and deaths were evaluated up to 36 months (time 1) for 53 patients. Results: CTE and endoscopy agreed in stratifying disease activity in 47% of cases (k = –0.05; p = 0.694), CTE and HBi in 35% (k = 0.09; p = 0.08), endoscopy and HBi in 39% (k = 0.13; p = 0.03). Taken together, CTE, endoscopy and HBi agreed only in 18% of cases (k = 0.01; p = 0.41). Among the 11 cases with mucosal healing, only 3 (27%) showed transmural healing. Patients with endoscopic activity needed significantly more changes of therapy compared to patients with endoscopic remission (p = 0.02). Patients with higher transmural or clinical activity at baseline required significantly more hospitalizations (p < 0.01). Hospitalization rate decreases with an increase in the number of parameters indicating remissions at baseline (p = 0.04). Conclusions: Clinical, endoscopic and radiological assessments offer complementary information and could predict different mid-term outcomes in CD.

Background The albumin–indocyanine green evaluation (ALICE) model based on serum albumin and indocyanine retention rate has been shown to be an effective method for predicting postoperative outcomes in hepatocellular carcinoma patients. Aim of the study was to validate the ALICE model in a large Western cohort of patients by comparing the albumin–bilirubin (ALBI) score and Child–Turcotte–Pugh (CTP) score. Methods A total of 400 patients who underwent hepatic resection from January 2005 to June 2016 at three centers were enrolled. The ALICE, ALBI, and CTP scores were computed for all patients. Results The ALICE score correlated better with ALBI (r = 0.428) than with CTP score (r = 0.302). Both the ALICE (grade 1: 49%; grade 2: 51%) and the ALBI (grade 1: 52.5%; grade 2: 47.5%) scores stratified the CTP class A patients into two distinct classes. The incidence of ascites (grades 1–3: ALICE 11%, 20%, 58%; ALBI 11%, 23%, 50%) and severe liver failure (ALICE 8.7%, 10.5%, 41.7%; ALBI 8.6%, 12%, 50%) increased with increasing ALBI and ALICE grade and were similar for the same grade. Conclusions The ALICE model can assess hepatic functional reserve and predict postoperative outcomes with efficacy comparable with the ALBI grade and better than the CTP score.

Rifaximin, with its low systemic absorption and no clinically significant interactions with other drugs, may represent a treatment of choice for IBS, mainly due to its ability to act on IBS pathogenesis, through the modulation of gut microbiota. Further studies to analyse the effect of rifaximin treatment on the composition of faecal microbiota are warranted. In particular, they need to evaluate whether resistant bacterial strains are selected and whether they are still present in the faecal sample even a long time after therapy.

CT enterography provide specific and measurable parameters in evaluating the response to therapy in CD patients.

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