Active clinical trials for "Irritable Bowel Syndrome"

Background: Functional gastrointestinal disorder (FGID) is the most common gastrointestinal disease in daily clinical practice. The disease is symptomatic but has no identifiable cause by standard diagnostic tests such as endoscopy. It is characterized by its frequent relapses and thus the disease causes a significant level of stress and anxiety to patients. Due to the complexity and chronicity of the disease, it is believed that appropriate counseling on the nature and management of the disease is necessary to decrease patient's anxiety level and improve quality of life. Indication: Patients who have symptoms suggestive of FGID including non-erosive gastroesophageal reflux disease (NERD), functional dyspepsia (FD) or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Aim: To validate the effectiveness of counseling in patients suffering from FGID. Method: Patients recruited to the study will follow the usual management of patients attending the Gastroenterology specialty clinic in Prince of Wales Hospital. Standard blood tests and endoscopy will be performed. Standard medication will be given to the patients for 8 weeks after endoscopy and the patients will come back to the specialty clinic for a final visit. The patient will be given an "on-demand follow up within 1 year" option at final visit. The patient will decide if he/she wants to come back to our specialty clinic to follow up his/her problem within one year. Follow-up after Final Visit Follow-up questionnaires will be mailed to patients 6 months, 1 and 2 years after Final visit. Randomization: All the patients will be randomized into two groups in First Visit: 1) Control group, and 2) Counseling group. Both groups of patients will follow the above protocol, except that 2 extra counseling sessions will be arranged for the Counseling group immediately after visiting the physician.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common disorder which presents with abdominal pain or discomfort in association with altered bowel habit. IBS is further subcategorized as three types according to the predominant bowel movement pattern: IBS with constipation (IBS-C), IBS with diarrhea (IBS-D), and mixed-IBS (IBS-M). The exact causes of IBS remain incompletely understood, but proposed mechanisms include abnormal motility, visceral hypersensitivity, abnormal brain-gut interactions, psychological distress, and altered GI tract motility. Lubiprostone, a novel drug that works by activating the colonic Chloride channel type 2(ClC-2), has been approved for use in patients with chronic idiopathic constipation and recently approved for the treatment of IBS-C in women aged 18 and older. By activating the ClC-2 chloride channel in the colon, lubiprostone allows more fluid secretion into the intestinal lumen which leads to softer stool consistency. In phase III clinical trials, patients with IBS-C receiving lubiprostone have reported improvements in many symptoms such as abdominal pain and constipation. However, there is limited physiologic data to explain how exactly lubiprostone improves IBS-C symptoms. The Smartpill is a novel non-digestible capsule that is capable of measuring intraluminal pH, pressure, and temperature in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Smartpill has been shown to accurately measure whole gut as well as regional (i.e. stomach, small bowel, colon) transit time. The primary aim of this study is to determine the effects of lubiprostone on whole GI tract transit, colonic transit, motility, and intraluminal pH in patients with IBS-C through evaluation with the Smartpill. The investigators propose to study the effect of lubiprostone vs. placebo on these parameters, and secondarily to evaluate changes in these parameters with differing doses of lubiprostone. The investigators hypothesize that lubiprostone will increase whole GI and colonic transit compared to placebo in patient with IBS. the investigators do not expect a change in intraluminal pH with lubiprostone compared to placebo.

About 10% of the population in western countries suffer from abdominal pain and change of bowel habits - known as the irritable bowel syndrome. The patients suffer from low quality of life and they are often not well taken care of within the public healthcare system. They often feel frustrated and seek both their family doctors, specialists and alternative medicine for help. Many patients feel they do not know enough about their disease, and the uncertainty may enhance bowel symptoms. We want to evaluate the effect of patient information and education in these patients.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the bacteria normally present in the bowels are different in people with constipation and to see what effect the treatment with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - approved drug, lubiprostone, has on these bacteria.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) carries a high prevalence worldwide and imposes substantial economic burden on patients, healthcare systems and society. In recent years, dysbiosis of the gut microbiota and bile acid (BA) malabsorption have been identified as putative pathophysiological mechanisms. Bile acid metabolism and gut microbiota are closely related. When patients with IBS-D were compared to healthy subjects, total levels of faecal BAs do not differ, but increased faecal primary BAs and reduced secondary BAs have been repeatedly observed in patients with IBS-D, suggesting abnormal BA deconjugation. Rifaximin, a non-absorbable antibiotic, has been shown in a recent meta-analysis to produce a therapeutic clinical gain compared to other treatment options for IBS, including placebo, paralleled by a high safety profile. It is also now known that changes in fecal microbiota have been observed in patients with IBS who have responded positively to Rifaximin. The relationship between microbiota changes, metabolomics changes after Rifaximin is unclear. There is emerging data to suggest duodenal dysbiosis as a putative pathophysiology, which in one study, clustered together with salivary microbiota than with fecal microbiota. However, the oral microbiome in patients with IBS has never been explored, which could possibly explain the downstream observations of duodenal and fecal dysbiosis. The investigators aim to assess the changes in metabolomic and microbiota profile after Rifaximin treatment, between responders and non-responders. The investigators will also explore the oral microbiome in IBS patients, and assess its relationship with fecal microbiome between responders and non-responders.

Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) often link their symptoms to foods. Interest in dietary management recently increased, including the use of a gluten-free diet. To investigate relation of gluten-free diet (GFD) and IBS, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over trial will be carried out in adults (>18) and patients with IBS according to Rome IV criteria. The aim is to assess gluten-free versus gluten-containing diet in IBS patients and Healthy Volunteers.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether an online resource developed to aid health consumers in making health decisions and better support them to seek quality evidence before other evidence is effective in the context of inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome

Low fermentable oligo-, di- and monosaccharides and polyols (FODMAPs) diet is taken as a possible strategy to improve symptoms in IBS patients. However, the gut-brain signalling mechanisms underlying this observation remain poorly understood. In this study, the investigators aim to study the brain mechanisms underlying the effect of intragastric administration of one specific FODMAP (fructans) on gastrointestinal and non- gastrointestinal symptom responses, changes in gut physiology(morphology of the gut, water content and intestinal motility), and to relate the findings to changes in gastrointestinal peptides. Intragastric administration of three different solutions will be given after an overnight fast: one FODMAP solution (fructans), a positive control (glucose) and a negative control (saline). The whole procedure consists of a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and abdominal MRI examination, and will take approximately four hours. The participants will undergo the fMRI for one hour for assessing brain activity, during which blood samples will be collected. The abdominal MRI will be performed at 1-hour interval for three hours to assess pre and post stimulated changes in gut physiology, specifically the morphology of the gut water content and pan-intestinal motility. During the whole procedure, questionnaires for assessing the gastrointestinal symptoms and emotional state will be collected. The investigators hypothesise that fructans induce distension and increased sensations of pain, cramps and flatulence in the IBS group more than the HC. Furthermore, this will be associated with increased activation of pain-responsive brain regions in IBS compared to HC, which will be mediated by differential changes in gut peptide levels (↓ in orexigenic and ↑ in anorexigenic hormones).

Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) often link their symptoms to foods. Interest in dietary management recently increased, including the use of a low FODMAP diet. To investigate relation of FODMAPs and IBS, a randomized, double-blind, cross-over trial will be carried out in adult (>18) patients with IBS according to Rome IV criteria. The aim is to assess low FODMAP diet versus moderate/high FODMAP diet in IBS patients.

The purpose of the study is to investigate if patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) who also report bloating are more likely to report clinically important gastrointestinal symptoms after consuming fructose or fructans than after consuming glucose. We will also use MRI imaging to investigate the mechanisms by which those symptoms might be caused. We will also study a parallel group of age and gender frequency matched healthy volunteers to provide descriptive statistics on a likely reference range for the healthy population. Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a common chronic condition, the main features of which are pain in the abdomen, an erratic bowel habit and sometimes bloating. Recent research has found that certain carbohydrates (sugars) in the diet can cause symptoms such as discomfort, bloating and wind/gas in people with IBS. These sugars are not well digested in the small bowel. They move to the colon (large bowel) where bacteria act on them by fermentation, producing gas. Some of the gas is absorbed and breathed out through the lungs, where we can measure it. The rest is released as flatulence/ wind, or occasionally belching. People without IBS rarely get symptoms after consuming these sugars. We want to find out what is different in IBS sufferers. We will study fructose and fructans, sugars found in fruit, vegetables and wheat. Fructose draws water into the small bowel but fructans do not so we can compare effects on the small bowel and colon. Participants will attend three times, and on each occasion consume a drink containing either fructose, fructans, or glucose - a sugar that does not cause symptoms. Neither they nor the investigators present will know which drink is which. They will record their symptoms over the next 5 hours. We will observe how many report a clinically important increase in symptoms. To look at what is happening in the bowel we will use a technique called Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). We want to see if more gas, or water, builds up in people with IBS than in healthy volunteers. We will also measure the amount of hydrogen released in the breath to see if this is could be a simple bedside test that agrees with the MRI findings Finding differences between the response of participants to fructose, fructans and glucose could change the way we advise patients, and could lead to the use of MRI as a test for IBS.