Ashwin N Ananthakrishnan

..Infection control measures are key to prevent horizontal transmission of infection. Ongoing research into effective treatment protocols and prevention is essential...

..The objective of this study is to examine whether there is a difference in the risk of psychiatric comorbidity following surgery in CD and UC...

..There is increasing complexity in the management of patients with acute severe exacerbation of inflammatory bowel disease [IBD; Crohn's disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC)] with frequent requirement for urgent surgery...

..Whether treatment to achieve MH is a cost-effective endpoint has not been established previously...

..Prior studies examining this may be confounded by the co-existence of functional bowel symptoms. Limited data exist examining an association between depression or anxiety and disease-specific endpoints such as bowel surgery...

..There have been no nationally representative studies examining the spectrum of infection related hospitalizations in patients with IBD...

..The effect of diet on established disease remains poorly studied. There is need for routine measurement of a spectrum of environmental exposures in prospective studies to further our understanding...

..Although many mechanisms have been proposed to link these disorders, few prospective studies have examined the relationship between depressed mood and incidence of CD or UC...

..Several options exist for the prevention of postoperative recurrence in CD, but the comparative cost effectiveness of these competing strategies has not been previously analyzed...

..Several gaps in research exist; prospective multicenter cohorts of CDI-IBD are essential to improve our understanding of the impact of CDI on IBD patients and define appropriate therapeutic regimens to improve patient outcomes...

..However, most studies have focused on demonstrating that CDI is associated with adverse outcomes in IBD patients. Few have attempted to identify predictors of severe outcomes associated with CDI among IBD patients...

..No studies have examined the temporal change in severity of C. difficile infection (CDI) complicating IBD...

..Routine screening decreases incidence and mortality; however rates of screening remain low. Physician recommendation is a key determinant of screening rates; thus, physician availability may also influence CRC incidence and mortality...

..Physician-visit length is an important determinant of patient satisfaction and outcomes. Our objective was to compare visit length for gastrointestinal disorders between gastroenterologists and primary-care providers (PCPs)...

..The impact of this on IBD hospitalization outcomes is unknown...

..Maintenance of bone health is an important concern in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). They may frequently have impaired bone density resulting in greater incidence of fractures...

..The association between ambient air pollution and IBD hospitalizations has not been previously studied...

..In patients failing two anti-TNF agents, a choice exists between using a third-anti-TNF therapy or natalizumab (NAT), an α-4 integrin inhibitor. A cost-effectiveness analysis comparing these competing strategies has not been performed...

..Between 2%-10% of patients with IBD have primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). There has been limited examination of the disease-specific HRQoL in this population compared to non-PSC IBD controls...

..It was hypothesized that vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased disease activity and lower health-related quality of life (HRQOL)...

..However, there are no comparable data in the USA. The incidence of CD and UC in relation to latitude was assessed in a geographically diverse population of women enrolled in two large prospective studies in the USA...

..Vitamin D influences innate immunity, which is believed to be involved in the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). However, data examining vitamin D status in relation to risk of CD and UC are lacking...

..In this review we summarize the present knowledge regarding C. difficile infection in the setting of IBD, including unique clinical scenarios facing IBD patients, diagnostic algorithms, and treatment approaches...

..The autonomic nervous system has been proposed to be involved in the pathogenesis of IBD. Autonomic dysfunction (AD) is associated with systemic manifestations and altered gut motility that may contributed to functional symptoms...

..General comorbidity indices were developed to predict mortality, which is rare in this population. There are limited tools to stratify these hospitalizations by severity...

..The role of postmenopausal hormone therapy on risk of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) is unclear...

..70, 95% CI = 1.29-2.25). In conclusion, the prevalence of CDI is higher for LT patients versus non-LT patients (2.7% versus 0.9%). CDI is an independent risk factor for mortality in the LT population...

..These patients may be more likely to require future colectomy. There are limited data examining whether medical hospitalization is predictive of subsequent colectomy...

..Durability of infliximab maintenance therapy over multiple years has not been defined...

..We evaluated the performance of the QuantiFERON TB Gold test (QFT-G) for TB screening in a cohort of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients in the United States...

..Despite growing interest in research using administrative data in inflammatory bowel disease, there is no available tool in such research to stratify disease severity or identify patients at high risk for colectomy...

..Aspirin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are anti-inflammatory but have been linked in some studies to Crohn disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC)...

..There are limited data regarding performance of infliximab in patients who require reinitiation of maintenance dosing following previous irregular exposure...

..While the majority of these are open procedures (OP), there is recent interest in laparoscopic resection (LS). There are no nationwide comparison of outcomes between LS and OP...

..To examine if a high hospital volume was associated with superior outcomes in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients requiring hospitalization...

..Analysis of trends in disease burden is important to study the changing epidemiology of disease. The aim of our study was to examine national trends in IBD-related visits in ambulatory and emergency room (ER) settings...

..There is a need to broaden these studies to the IBD population. There is also the need to prospectively examine whether CDI has long-term disease-modifying consequences in those with underlying IBD...

..Regular maintenance care may reduce complications or the need for hospitalization. Availability of physicians may be an important determinant of IBD hospitalizations...

..Also reviewed are clinical situations specific to patients with IBD that are important for the treating physician to recognize...

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..Our aim was to determine burden and risk factors for VTE in cirrhotics from a national sample...

..Little is known about the effects of cancer therapy for extraintestinal malignancy in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs)...

..Acute nonvariceal upper-GI hemorrhage (NVUGIH) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality...

..There is no available data on the safety of using oral budesonide in pregnant patients...

..Management of AVH requires early initiation of specialized care that may be more readily available at centers that deal with a high volume of AVH...

..However, teaching hospitals and high-volume centers have equivalent in-hospital survival despite caring for this more severely ill cohort...

..There are limited data from the United States on work disability from CD. We performed this study to identify clinical factors associated with permanent work disability in a CD tertiary referral cohort...

..Early life factors have been postulated to play a role in development of immune tolerance and intestinal microbiome, which in turn may influence the risk of inflammatory bowel disease...

..To examine the impact of pregnancy on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of women with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)...

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..Cirrhotics have poor post-trauma outcomes on small-scale studies. The aim was to examine the effect of cirrhosis on mortality, charges, and length of stay (LOS) after MVCs using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) 2004...

..The aim of our study was to compare outcomes of IBD-related hospitalizations in a nationwide representative cohort of patients 65 years and older with younger patients...

..This editorial describes the data published so far on the correlation between disease duration and treatment response and examines the potential benefits to such treatment algorithms...

..Racial differences in post-transplant survival in the MELD era have not been previously examined...

..We analyzed characteristics of patients with BE for factors that might be used in screening and management...

..We investigated a large group of morbidly obese patients to derive a scoring system based on simple clinical and laboratory variables...

..However, few studies to date have investigated the safety and durability of anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapy in this subgroup...

..This article provides an overview of caring for elderly patients with UC, including diagnostic and therapeutic considerations...

..Since 2001, Medicare has provided coverage of colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening in individuals at average risk, but little is known about the effect of this coverage on screening or disparities in screening practices...

..We propose a classification of disease severity to guide therapy that is useful for clinicians. We review current treatment options for patients with recurrent CDI and recommendations for the control and prevention of outbreaks of CDI...

..To report a case of imatinib-induced hepatotoxicity after concurrent ginseng ingestion in a patient with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML)...

..Surgical resection has been used successfully in patients with monolobar disease. For patients with diffuse involvement, the treatment of choice is orthotopic liver transplantation...