Although being equal in short-term efficacy and overall tolerability our results suggest a better gastrointestinal tolerability for iron sucrose. Larger trials are mandatory to prove a possible advantage of iron sucrose in short- and long-term efficacy as well as in tolerability over iron sulfate in the management of IDA in IBD.
Casimir forces are conventionally computed by analyzing the effects of boundary conditions on a fluctuating quantum field. Although this analysis provides a clean and calculationally tractable idealization, it does not always accurately capture the characteristics of real materials, which cannot constrain the modes of the fluctuating field at all energies. We study the vacuum polarization energy of renormalizable, continuum quantum field theory in the presence of a background field, designed to impose a Dirichlet boundary condition in a particular limit. We show that in two and three space dimensions, as a background field becomes concentrated on the surface on which the Dirichlet boundary condition would eventually hold, the Casimir energy diverges. This result implies that the energy depends in detail on the properties of the material, which are not captured by the idealized boundary conditions. This divergence does not affect the force between rigid bodies, but it does invalidate calculations of Casimir stresses based on idealized boundary conditions.
Summary
Background Differentiating symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome from those of organic intestinal disease is a common clinical problem. Several neutrophil‐derived proteins have been proposed as a marker of inflammatory bowel disease.
Aim To compare the diagnostic value of faecal calprotectin, lactoferrin and polymorphonuclear neutrophil‐elastase in distinguishing inflammatory bowel disease from irritable bowel syndrome.
Methods Eighty‐eight adult patients with a history of chronic diarrhoea of unknown origin were screened. All patients underwent a complete work‐up to identify the underlying cause. In addition, a single stool sample was assayed for faecal calprotectin, lactoferrin and polymorphonuclear neutrophil‐elastase by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay.
Results Within the study cohort inflammatory bowel disease was diagnosed in 45 patients and irritable bowel syndrome in 31 patients. The sensitivity and specificity of calprotectin for inflammatory bowel disease were 93% and 100%, respectively. In contrast, the respective diagnostic values for lactoferrin and polymorphonuclear neutrophil‐elastase were 82% and 100% and 84% and 87%, respectively. Neither combination of markers did improve the diagnostic power compared with calprotectin alone.
Conclusions Although all faecal biomarkers studied provide a reliable and simple non‐invasive means in the differentiation of inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome, calprotectin appears to represent the most accurate marker to discriminate between these two common causes of chronic diarrhoea.
The overall prevalence of anemia in patients with Crohn's disease was 27% (95% confidence interval, 19-35) and 21% (95% confidence interval, 15-27) in patients with ulcerative colitis. Thereby, 57% of the anemic patients were iron deficient.
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