© 2004 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & Association of Clinical Pathologists
ECHO
Antibodies against Saccharomyces cerevisiae and early surgery for Crohn’s disease
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Medical therapies for Crohn’s disease (CD) range from the relatively benign and less effective (5-aminosalicylates and antibiotics) to the more toxic but more effective (steroids, immunomodulators, and anti-tumour necrosis factor antibodies). Despite such treatments about 80% of patients need surgery within 20 years of diagnosis and 20–40% within three years. Earlier more aggressive medical treatment might reduce rates of surgery but better methods of assessing prognosis are needed so that early effective but potentially toxic treatments can be reserved for patients who might benefit most. Anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibodies (ASCA) are found in 60% of patients with CD and are nearly 95% specific for the diagnosis. There is evidence that ASCA are indicative of poorer prognosis. Now researchers in New England, USA, have reported an association between ASCA and early need for surgery.
A cohort study at 16 centres included 345 patients with CD diagnosed between 1991 and 1999 and
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
