TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE

 

Inflammatory bowel diseases are nonspecific ulcerative colitis (NEC) and Crohn's disease. These pathologies have an immune-mediated nature, are chronic, cause several dangerous complications, and significantly impair the patient's quality of life.

At the ON Clinic giandliverconsultants, a thorough diagnosis of the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract is performed, after which an individual treatment scheme is developed to stop the inflammation and prevent complications. The giandliverconsultants provide the gastrointestinal consultants in Irvine. 

What is inflammatory bowel disease?

Depending on the location and nature of inflammation, among inflammatory bowel pathologies, gastroenterologists distinguish two major diseases:

• Crohn's disease, accompanied by the development of granulomatous inflammation, which can occur in any part of the digestive tract;
• Ulcerative colitis is characterized by the formation of ulcers and erosions on the large intestine walls (mostly the first to be affected by the mucous membrane of the rectum).

Even though similar signs of gastrointestinal tract disorders accompany these inflammatory diseases, there are some differences in their symptoms.

Thus, Crohn's disease has symptoms such as:

• diarrhea;
• spasmodic abdominal pain;
• weight loss (up to cachexia);
• increased fatigue;
• fistula or abscess;
• intestinal stenosis (up to the development of intestinal obstruction);
• fistulas between the intestine and neighboring organs (peritoneum, bladder, etc.).

The following symptoms accompany the presence of ulcerative colitis:

• frequent diarrhea with blood, mucus, or pus in the stool (up to 15 times a day);
• false urges to defecate;
• pronounced abdominal pain;
• increase in body temperature, etc.

Also, these pathologies are characterized by extra intestinal manifestations: joint disease, liver and blood disorders, bone demineralization, and many others.

How is inflammatory bowel disease treated?

The nature and composition of the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease are determined by a gastroenterologist depending on the current clinical picture and the presence of concomitant pathologies. The most effective therapy with high clinical remission rates in patients is the biological treatment of inflammatory bowel disease compared to other treatments. The giandliverconsultants provide the liver consultants in Irvine.

What is biological therapy?

Infection with viruses/bacteria or disruption of the intestinal microbiome leads to the activation of antigens synthesized in the epithelial cells of its mucous membrane. As an immune response, the inflammatory response is exacerbated by a constant influx of lymphocytes (T-helpers), causing an increasing spread of pathological inflammation.

Suppression of the delivery system of immune agents to the lesion site allows stopping the immune response at the molecular level, stopping the acute period of the disease, and preventing complications.

Vedolizumab is an effective means of biological therapy. Its action is based on the properties of immunoglobulin G monoclonal antibodies to affect the migration of lymphocytes into inflamed intestinal tissues selectively.