Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
Conditions
Brief summary
Inflammatory bowel disease, which includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, is a condition that causes inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. The disease goes through periods of remission and flare. Biomarkers such as fecal calprotectin have been proposed as a tool to monitor disease activity. Fecal calprotectin is a test that measures the amount of inflammation in the stool. Monitoring fecal calprotectin levels can assist gastroenterologists in making decisions regarding patients' IBD treatment such as whether to increase the dose of medications. A recent study showed that frequent measurement of fecal calprotectin every 3 months, also called the tight-control strategy, was associated with improved clinical outcomes in IBD patients. The purpose of this study is to assess whether the tight-control monitoring strategy, which includes fecal calprotectin monitoring every 3 months, improves clinical outcomes in IBD when performed in the real world compared to routine clinical practice.
Interventions
DIAGNOSTIC_TESTFecal calprotectin
Testing every 3 months
OTHERRoutine care
As per treating gastroenterologist
Sponsors
McMaster University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
1. Diagnosis of Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis based on clinical, endoscopic, radiologic or histologic criteria. 2. Followed by a gastroenterologist at Hamilton Health Sciences, St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, and London Health Sciences 3. Aged 18 or older 4. In clinical remission according to the clinical symptom assessment (Partial Mayo score \< 2 or Harvey-Bradshaw Index \< 4) 5. Currently treated with adalimumab
Exclusion criteria
1. Current abdominal abscess 2. Inability or unwillingness to provide informed consent 3. Any other condition, which in the opinion of the investigators would impede competence or compliance or possibly hinder completion of the study
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Rate of Relapse | 12 months | This will be a composite outcome of clinical symptom relapse (based on elevation of symptom scores like rise in Harvey Bradshaw Index \>=3 points for Crohn's disease and Partial Mayo score \>=2 points for ulcerative colitis), hospitalization, prednisone use, or IBD-related surgery |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Rate of Clinical symptom relapse | 12 months | Elevation of symptom scores like rise in Harvey Bradshaw Index \>= 3 points for Crohn's disease and Partial Mayo score \>=2 points for ulcerative colitis |
| Incidence of Hospitalizations | 12 months | Based on admission to hospital for IBD-related reasons |
| Incidence of change in medical therapies | 12 months | Increased doses of current biologics, switch to different biologics, addition of immunomodulators, or steroid use would all qualify as changes in medical therapies |
Outcome results
None listed