Active clinical trials for "Intestinal Diseases"

Chronic intestinal inflammation characterizes inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), which consist mainly of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The exact etiology is unknown for both diseases and therapeutic attempts aimed at down-regulating intestinal inflammation use both mediator-specific and nonspecific immune suppression. These attempts cause considerable side effects. Also, IBD patients are different in their genetic background and pathology. It was previously shown that products based on marijuana (Cannabis sativa) produce beneficial effects for patients with IBD, and medical cannabis-based products were formerly proven to have anti-inflammatory activity in laboratory experiments and in clinical tests. However, it is unknown how C. sativa-based medical products exert their effect in IBD and additional research and development should be done. One issue to be resolved in the process of medicalization of C. sativa is the base for the differences in patient response to different C. sativa lines, in order to fine-tune C. sativa -based treatment to IBD patients. For this aim of fine-tuning C. sativa -based treatment to IBD patients, we characterized the chemical composition of different C. sativa lines and their anti-inflammatory activities on colon cells lines. Extracts of C. sativa lines were prepared using various methods and cannabinoids and terpenoids profile was determined by chemical analysis. We found that different compounds have different effects on inflamed colon cell lines, leading to changes in interleukin secretion, inflammation markers and gene expression in the treated colon cells. In addition, we have developed a unique system relevant for personalized medicine in IBD. This system allows a patient-specific determination of the effect of C. sativa -based treatment. Following, clinical tests will be conducted aiming to develop cannabis-based products from different C. sativa lines, with anti-inflammatory activity that is effective and optimized for the different IBD patients.

Assessment of nutritional status among patients with inflammatory bowel disease using different nutritional assessment tools. Assessment of correlation between nutritional status and disease severity. Assessment of the impact of the Mediterranean diet on the nutritional status of the patients after 3 months.

Fatigue is a very frequently reported symptom in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), whether it is Crohn's disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC). Sometimes the fatigue may be easily explained by other symptoms or tests which show that the disease is active. For example patients may be anaemic (have a low blood count) which can in itself lead to a feeling of being tired all the time. Treatment of the disease can make some of these patients feel less fatigued. However, 4 or 5 out of every 10 patients with IBD which is felt to be in remission (ie not active disease) report fatigue. This can have far-reaching implications for patients in their everyday lives, with issues around work or school, close relationships, travel and leisure being profoundly affected. The CCUK funded research on fatigue and IBD, led by Professor Christine Norton and Wladzia Czuber-Dochan at King's College London, has identified fatigue as being a significant issue facing patients and has also highlighted that few doctors offer help and support beyond treating the disease itself when active. This is partly because fatigue itself has been difficult to measure and so any study designed to treat fatigue would be limited by being unable to quantify any improvement in a meaningful way. Fortunately the King's College group have developed a 'fatigue score' which is a simple questionnaire that is able to quantify the severity of fatigue. The aim of our study is to assess the effect of a structured support and educational programme on the levels of fatigue in patients with inactive IBD who report moderate or severe levels of fatigue. A secondary component of our study is to see if there are any associations between fatigue levels and disease activity or other parameters such as quality of life, anxiety or symptoms of overlapping irritable bowel syndrome. Patients will be approached in the out-patient or telephone clinics and the study will be explained with written information and any questions will be answered. If they agree to being involved they will be asked to complete the fatigue and a number of other questionnaires in addition to having the standard assessment of symptoms, blood tests and a stool specimen. Patients with active disease will be excluded from the subsequent group interventions but the data they have provided to this point will still be helpful in our understanding of fatigue in IBD. Patients identified as being in remission following the initial assessments will be offered the opportunity to be involved in the next stage of the study. The stool samples will also be analysed for the microbiome ie which bacteria are present as some studies suggest that patients with IBD may have a reduced diversity of bacteria in their intestines. Half of this group will be randomised to active intervention and half will act as a control group for the rest of the study. The active intervention will involve completion of activity diaries over the following two weeks and then analysis of the diaries and agreement on behaviour changes designed to help fatigue. This will be supported by written information and three, monthly small group sessions to reinforce and support these changes. At the end of the study all patients will again complete the fatigue and quality of life questionnaires and have their disease activity assessed by symptom scores, blood and stool tests. The baseline results and the final results will be analysed to see if there is any improvement in fatigue in the group undergoing the programme of support and behaviour change. This is only a small pilot study but if it demonstrates that the intervention is feasible and may help with fatigue then a larger study will be performed to try and confirm our initial findings. Our ultimate aim is to find a simple intervention to empower patients to deal with the difficult task of living with IBD and the fatigue that this can bring.

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) refers to a category of disorders, consisting of Crohn's Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC), where segments of the gastrointestinal tract become inflamed and ulcerated. Canada has among the highest incidence rates of IBD in the world - 16.3 and 12.3 per 100,000 for CD and UC respectively. In the absence of a cure, the current goal of treatment is to manage patients in a milder state of remission. However, maintaining (or even achieving) remission is dependent on timely access to specialist IBD care; which in light of rising incidence rates have proven to be challenging. Moreover, patients often experience flare-ups of their gastrointestinal symptoms, while awaiting access to specialist care. In recent years, there has been increased integration of telemedicine services in gastroenterology practice. This change has been driven by a desire among IBD patients to have more flexible follow-up care, where 'virtual' care is provided as an adjunct to in-person consultations. Within the context of IBD, telemedicine might be effective in delivering routine and timely follow-up care to high-risk patients. The purpose of this study to determine whether telemedicine-based follow-up care can effectively manage the gastrointestinal symptoms of high-risk IBD patients and reduce their need for preventive health care services.

People nowadays tend to have irregular diet and routine due to the stress at work. This condition may cause intestinal microflora imbalance, and in the long term may lead to constipation, diarrhea, gastroenteritis, gastric ulcer and other gastrointestinal diseases. Helicobacter pylori infection, which can trigger gastrointestinal inflammation and ulcer, is commonly treated by antibiotics. This treatment, however, can reduce the diversity of the intestinal microflora, causing diarrhea, flatulence and nausea. Clinical trials showed that probiotics and prebiotics supplementation could regulate gastrointestinal function, including alleviating constipation, ameliorating antibiotic-associated diarrhea and flatulence, enhancing the effect of H. pylori treatment, and restoring the balance of intestinal microflora. This Probiotics product is a supplement containing several types of probiotics and prebiotics which has been marketed for years. This project aims to observe the effectiveness of Probiotics product consumption by H. pylori-infected patients in relieving the gastrointestinal symptoms and restoring their intestinal microflora.

Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are types of chronic intestinal disorder called inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) that can affect the small and large bowel causing symptoms of abdominal pain, diarrhea, blood in the stool, and weight loss. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a milder form of IBD, with symptoms of abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea or constipation, and blood in the stool. It is not known what causes diseases such as IBD and IBS. This study will look at the events in the gut that leads to leaky gut and inflammation in patients with IBD and IBS. The study will also see if medications such as rifaximin and mesalamine may reduce the amount of leaky gut.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) encompasses two major forms of chronic intestinal disorders, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis (UC). Diagnosis is based on several macroscopic and histologic features including patterns of inflammation, crypt abscesses and granulomas. Confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) is rapidly emerging as a valuable tool for gastrointestinal endoscopic imaging, enabling the endoscopist to obtain an "optical biopsy" of the gastrointestinal mucosa during the endoscopic procedure. The main objective of this study is to determine endoscopic and endomicroscopic features of mucosal healing in patients with IBD.

The aim of this study is appraise the safety and feasibility of utilising a novel mobile phone application and linked clinical platform to replace and enhance traditional outpatient appointments for patients with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. The goal of this study is to demonstrate whether the platform can reduce the costs of managing patients on complex immunomodulators and biologic therapies whilst maintaining safety monitoring such as clinical patient reported outcome measures (PROMs), haematological and biochemical tests.

This is a retrospective, case control study of inflammatory bowel disease. This study will analyze the phenotypic characteristics of inflammatory bowel disease in the Southeast Asian population and will help describe clinical characteristics and serologic profiles in Southeast Asians with inflammatory bowel disease, comparing the phenotype differences to historical Caucasian controls. The data from this study will help identify the phenotype characteristics of different ethnic groups and study the epidemiological patterns of the disease.

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases are incurable, life-long conditions that significantly impact a patient's quality of life. Crohn's Disease and ulcerative colitis are the most prevalent inflammatory bowel diseases in the United States; both are characterized by chronic, relapsing inflammation of the intestinal tract, which manifests as symptoms of diarrhea, fecal urgency, fecal incontinence, fever, fatigue, abdominal pain and cramping. These severely debilitating periods of illness or "flare" alternate with times of remission when patients have few or no symptoms, and feel healthy. Despite periodic respite, many patients with IBD experience severe stress and anxiety even when they are well, because of the likely occurrence of episodes of disease in their future. This is exacerbated by the unpredictable frequency and inconsistent duration of flares that may last as long as several weeks or months. The goal for this study is to use non-invasive monitoring techniques to identify biomarkers that emerge, or change predictably, when a patient begins to relapse from remission to enter a period of disease - to find the earliest signs of an active flare. If the investigators identify a pattern of biomarkers that could alert a patient and their clinician to a flare as soon as it begins, it may be possible to intervene before symptoms present by changing medication and/or diet and lifestyle to lessen the severity of the disease flare. The biomarker fingerprint may also reveal new targets for therapeutics that could control IBD.