Active clinical trials for "Colitis"

The purpose of this study is three fold: 1)To collect serum from patients with documented Clostridium difficile infection and test for the presence of antibody to C. difficile toxin at the start and at the end of therapy, and again if a relapse or recurrence occurs. 2)To collect stool samples for test of C. difficile toxin at similar time intervals. 3)To assay random serum samples from the VA lab in order to determine the rate of antibody to C. difficile toxin in our patient population.

The investigators propose to study intensively the bacteriology of feces in C. difficile associated diarrheal disease, using a variety of conventional and very up-to-date techniques.

An increase prevalence of CMV, EBV and or HHV-6 in diseased tissue of inflammatory bowel disease would suggest a role for these viruses in the etiology and/or exacerbation of IBD, whereas their absence would preclude such association.

CMV viral load detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in either serum or stool may be beneficial in diagnosing CMV colitis, but the data is limited. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the diagnostic performance of stool CMV-PCR, serum CMV-PCR, and their combination in diagnosing CMV colitis using tissue histopathology as the standard reference in patients with clinical suspicion of CMV colitis.

The investigators hypothesize that development of symptoms characteristic of Clostridium difficile infection will be 2-3 times higher in asymptomatic carriers, compared to that of non carriers and expect to find risk factors for development of symptomatic clostridium difficile.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory condition of unknown aetiology, characterized by a diffuse confluent mucosal inflammation of the colon starting from the rectum with a relapsing and remitting course. Conventional endoscopy was thought to be a reliable parameter of disease activity, but microscopic inflammation can persist despite normal mucosal findings. Histologically detectable inflammation is associated with a greater risk of subsequent relapse. A flare in UC activity is difficult to predict, but a simple, easily measured biological marker of relapse would be important in guiding the most appropriate therapy. Recent technological advances in fiber optics, light sources, detectors, and molecular biology have stimulated development of numerous optical methods that promise to significantly improve our ability to evaluate human epithelium in vivo. These methods, collectively termed "optical biopsy," are nondestructive in situ assays of mucosal histopathology using light that can provide instantaneous tissue assessment. Narrow band imaging (NBI) is a novel technique that enhances the diagnostic capability of endoscopes in characterising tissues by using filters in a redgreenblue (RGB) sequential illumination system. This results in improved mucosal contrast and detail. UC always involves the distal colon and activity is usually greatest in rectosigmoid area. This makes evaluation of the rectum and sigmoid an attractive marker in patients with UC. Unlike serum and faecal markers, endoscopic assessment of the mucosa is unlikely to be affected by systemic disease and would be acceptable test for patients and physicians. We plan to evaluate THE rectosigmoid mucosa in patients with UC by flexible endoscope using both white light and NBI endoscopy. These patients will be followed by for one year or until they relapse, whichever comes first. The aim of our study is to develop endoscopic biomarkers to predict relapse in acute and quiescent UC.

The objectives of this study are to investigate how oral 5-ASA drugs have been used in the condition without symptoms such as abdominal pain or diarrhea/bloody stool (remission stage), or in the transition from the condition with symptoms such as abdominal pain or diarrhea/bloody stool (active stage) to the remission stage in ulcerative colitis and to study how many patients will be able to maintain the remission stage during the observation period and how many times the patients will experience the active stage (relapse), as well as how symptoms will change during the observation period to discover better treatment plans.

The aetiologies of computed tomography-diagnosed acute colitis remain surprisingly unknown. Moreover, no diagnostic tool or clinical score allow to quickly determine or at least stratify the exact cause of colitis in patients admitted at an Emergency Ward and to direct them to the appropriate therapeutic care. The aims of the present study are to describe the presentation and aetiologies of acute colitis, and to develop diagnostic methods to guide patients admitted for acute colitis to the appropriate therapeutic care, notably colonoscopy.

A recent multicentre randomised controlled trial compared autofluorescence imaging (AFI) with CE for dysplasia detection in colonoscopy surveillance of patients with longstanding UC (FIND-UC). In this study, CE detected significantly more dysplastic lesions per patient compared with AFI. It is unclear whether this increased dysplasia detection also translates to a reduction of dysplasia at follow-up colonoscopy. The aim of this pre-specified study is therefore to prospectively determine whether there is a difference in dysplasia detection at follow-up colonoscopy between UC patients who were randomized to AFI or CE at index colonoscopy for the FIND-UC trial.

The purpose of the study is to determine whether a new colonoscopic viewing technique called Linked color imaging(LCI) helps endoscopists detect more dysplasia lesions in ulcerative colitis patients than conventional colonoscopy using white light alone.