Un numero speciale di Gastroenterology dedicato alle IBD
29 maggio 2004 | IBD
This issue provides valuable insights into the current state of the art in the clinical aspects of IBD genetics, pharmacogenomics and genotype/phenotype correlations, clinical epidemiology, differential diagnosis, diagnostic imaging, dysplasia screening, and novel therapeutics. Advances in the medical and surgical management of ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and pediatric IBD patients, with particular attention to optimizing anti-TNF therapy and manipulating the commensal bacterial populations are discussed by active investigators. These topics should be of immediate benefit to the practicing physician and trainee, and should stimulate additional clinical research to fill in the existing gaps in our management of these increasingly more common disorders that incur significant morbidity and expense in all segments of our society. Clinically relevant advances will develop at an even more rapid pace as our knowledge base continues to grow through observations in human and murine models of IBD. We predict that the diagnosis and treatment of these disorders will be revolutionized by individualizing treatment for genetically, immunologically, and phenotypically defined subsets of patients. These developing concepts in IBD can be translated quite effectively to other immune-mediated inflammatory diseases that affect multiple organs remote from the gastrointestinal tract.