Su1361 Systemic Therapy May Mask the Presence of Disease in Colitis Patients Undergoing Preoperative Small Bowel Evaluations

Abstract

and severity of flare ups in patients with IBD. METHODS: We collected and analyzed data from 12 patients who had followed the SCD for a minimum of sixty days. We asked patients to assess their quality of life and disease activity before and after the diet using questions from the IBDQ, a validated, disease-specific quality of life questionnaire. We administered additional questions in order to evaluate patients' experiences with the diet. We compared scoring before and after adoption of the SCD to determine the diet's impact on quality of life and disease activity. The effects of the diet on mucosal healing was also assessed. Patient characteristics included: 3 patients with ulcerative colitis and 9 with Crohn's disease; ages 16 to 69 with an average age of 39; 9 females and 3 males; duration of disease 2 years to 23 years with an average disease duration of 10 years; 5 out of 12 patients had undergone previous surgery for IBD. RESULTS: All patients (12 out of 12) reported that the diet improved their symptoms; 10 out of 12 reported that the diet helped very much and 2 out of 12 somewhat. The average time to see improvement after starting the diet was 38 days (3 days to 4 months). At the time of the study, the patients had been on the diet for an average of 19 months (2 to 72 months). One-third of the patients reported straying from the diet occasionally (less than 10%of the time), whilst two-thirds reported 100% compliance. Two-thirds of the patients (8 out of 12) were able to decrease or stop medication after adopting the diet. Endoscopic data was available for 8 out of 12 patients and revealed mucosal healing in 75% (6 out of 8) after adopting the diet. The average improvement in modified IBDQ score after the diet was 68%. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggests that the SCD might be a viable therapeutic option for management of IBD, and that it can result in improvement of symptoms, mucosal healing, and a reduction or discontinuation of medication. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the overall efficacy of the diet and the mechanisms by which it may improve disease activity.