Su Hyun Park

Background/Aims: Video capsule endoscopy is rarely used to diagnose Crohn’s disease in patients with negative ileocolonoscopy or cross-sectional image findings. We evaluated clinical characteristics and long-term outcomes of these rare cases. Methods: This multicenter study included patients with Crohn’s disease from 3 tertiary hospitals from January 2007 to October 2022. Patients with normal findings on ileocolonoscopy and computed tomography (CT)/magnetic resonance (MR) enterography but had ulcerations at the small bowel detected by video capsule endoscopy were included. The controls were patients with abnormal findings on endoscopy or CT/MR enterography. Controls were case-matched in a ratio of 3:1 for sex, calendar year of diagnosis, and age at diagnosis. Results: Among 3,752 patients, 24 (0.6%) were diagnosed with Crohn’s disease using video capsule endoscopy findings. The disease location (P< 0.001) and behavior at diagnosis (P= 0.013) of the cases significantly differed from that of controls. The perianal fistula modifier (25.0% vs. 33.3%, P= 0.446) did not differ significantly between the 2 groups. Initial disease activity and C-reactive protein and fecal calprotectin levels were significantly lower in cases versus controls. The median Lewis score was 838 (interquartile range, 393–1,803). Over 10 years of follow-up, the cases showed significantly lower cumulative risk of complicated behavior, biologics use, Crohn’s disease-related hospitalization, and surgeries (log-rank test P< 0.05). Conclusions: Patients with Crohn’s disease whose lesions were observed only by video capsule endoscopy were rare, and exhibit different clinical characteristics and a more favorable long-term disease course compared to those who were conventionally diagnosed.

CKD‐495 is a newly developed drug extracted from Cinnamomum cassia Presl. This phase II study assessed the clinical benefits of CKD‐495 in the treatment of acute and chronic gastritis. This study randomly assigned 250 patients with endoscopically‐proven gastric mucosal erosion to five groups. The groups received either 75 mg or 150 mg of CKD‐495, 100 mg of rebamipide, 60 mg of Artemisiae argyi folium 95% ethanol ext. (20 ⟶ 1) (Stillen; Dong‐A ST Co., Ltd., Seoul, Korea), or placebo for 2 weeks, respectively. The primary endpoint was the erosion improvement rate, and the secondary endpoints were erosion cure rates, improvement rates of gastrointestinal symptoms, edema, redness, and hemorrhage. Drug‐related adverse events were evaluated. The endoscopic erosion improvement rate was significantly higher in the 75 mg CKD‐495 group than in the other groups in both the full analysis set (73% vs. 41%, 45%, 52%, 48% for the 75 mg CKD‐495, 150 mg CKD‐495, placebo, 60 mg Stillen, and 100 mg rebamipide groups, respectively) and the per‐protocol set (PPS) (75% vs. 37%, 45%, 51%, 50%). The cure rate of gastric erosion was significantly higher in the 75 mg CKD‐495 group than in the other groups. The improvement rates of hemorrhage erosion were significantly higher in the 150‐mg CKD‐495 group. No significant differences were observed in the safety profiles. No serious adverse events or drug reactions were observed. These results demonstrate that 75 mg of CKD‐495 has excellent efficacy for the treatment of endoscopic and symptomatic improvements for acute and chronic gastritis. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03437785

Fecal calprotectin (FC) is commonly used to assess Crohn’s disease (CD) activity. However, standardized cut-off values accounting for bowel resection history and disease location are lacking. In this study, we analyzed data from patients with CD who underwent magnetic resonance enterography, ileocolonoscopy, and FC measurements from January 2017 to December 2018. In 267 cases from 254 patients, the FC levels in the ‘operated’ patients were higher when the disease was active compared with those who were in the remission group (178 vs. 54.7 μg/g; p < 0.001), and similar findings were obtained for the ‘non-operated’ patients (449.5 vs. 40.95 μg/g; p < 0.001). The FC levels differed significantly according to the location of inflammation, with lower levels in the small bowel compared to those in the colon. The FC cut-off levels of 70.8 μg/g and 142.0 μg/g were considered optimal for predicting active disease for operated and non-operated patients, respectively. The corresponding FC cut-off levels of 70.8 μg/g and 65.0 μg/g were observed for patients with disease only in the small bowel. In conclusion, different FC cut-off values would be applicable to patients with CD based on their bowel resection history and disease location. Tight control with a lower FC target may benefit those with a history of bowel resection or small-bowel-only disease.

Due to its high prevalence, screening for hepatic fibrosis in the low-risk population is called for action in the primary care clinic. However, current guidelines provide conflicting recommendations on populations to be screened. We aimed to identify the target populations that would most benefit from screening for hepatic fibrosis in clinical practice. This study examined 1288 subjects who underwent magnetic resonance elastography. The diagnostic performance of the Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) index and NAFLD fibrosis score was compared in the following groups: (1) ultrasonography (USG)-diagnosed NAFLD, (2) elevated liver enzyme, (3) metabolic syndrome, (4) impaired fasting glucose, and (5) type 2 diabetes regardless of fatty liver. Decision curve analysis was performed to express the net benefit of groups over a range of probability thresholds (Pts). The diabetes group showed a better area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC: 0.69) compared with subjects in the USG-diagnosed NAFLD (AUROC: 0.57) and elevated liver enzyme (AUROC: 0.55) groups based on the FIB-4 index. In decision curve analysis, the diabetes group showed the highest net benefit for the detection of significant fibrosis across a wide range of Pts. Patients with diabetes, even in the absence of fatty liver, would be preferable for hepatic fibrosis screening in low-risk populations.