Paul Rutgeerts

Dear Friends and Colleagues!

It is with great sadness that we have to announce the passing of em. Prof. Dr. Paul Rutgeerts on September 12, 2020.

Paul Rutgeerts (°1948, Brussels) obtained his medical degree in 1973 at the KU Leuven and specialised in internal medicine at UZ Leuven. He became a member of the medical staff in gastroenterology in 1978. In 1981 he graduated in higher education with a dissertation on ‘Bile acid disorders in Crohn’s disease’. He started lecturing at the KU Leuven in 1981 and became a full professor in 1990.

Virginie Cluzeau © Virginie Cluzeau

France

N-ECCO National Representative:
Virginie Cluzeau
Job Title: 
Clinical research and patient education IBD Nurse

What influenced your decision to apply for the role of N-ECCO National Representative for your country?

The nurse that I replaced as French representative 4 years ago explained what the position involved. I was really interested to know how it works for nurses in other countries, and I thought that taking up this role could be useful in improving the position of IBD Nurses in France.

Ignacio Catalán-Serra © ECCO

Fernando Magro is Consultant in Gastroenterology and Director of Pharmacology at the University Hospital São João Porto, Portugal. In addition Fernando is also Associate Editor of the UEG Journal and founder of the Portuguese IBD Group. As he started his term as new Education Officer at ECCO'20 we wanted to provide the ECCO News readers with an exclusive interview with him.

Once more, the interview was recorded and can be listened to by clicking on the button below. We hope you will enjoy the introduction to ECCO's Education Officer.

Ignacio Catalán-Serra, ECCO News Associate Editor

Lithuania

Name of group: IBD Group of Lithuanian Society of Gastroenterology

Number of active members: 28

Number of meetings per year: 4–5

President and Secretary:

Gediminas Kiudelis: President

Juozas Kupčinskas: Secretary General

National Representatives: 

Limas Kupčinskas

Gediminas Kiudelis

Joined ECCO in:

The IBD Group of Lithuanian Society of Gastroenterology joined ECCO in 2002.

Incidence of IBD in the country: 11.6/100,000

Czech Republic

Name of group: The Czech IBD Working Group

Number of active members: The Czech IBD Working Group has no official membership, but there are approximately 30 active participants who attend the meetings and participate in group activities.

Number of meetings per year: The group organises three or four meetings per year.

President and Secretary: There is no official president and secretary, but the coordinator of the group is Martin Bortlik.

National Representatives:  Pavel Drastich and Dana Duricova

Joined ECCO in:

The Czech IBD Working Group became a member of ECCO in 2002.

Incidence of IBD in the country: According to an international epidemiological study – the ECCO-EpiCom study – the incidence of IBD in 2010 was 12.7/100,000 inhabitants (5.6 for CD and 5.8 for UC).

Switzerland

Emanuel Burri  © Emanuel Burri

Michel Maillard © Michel Maillard

Name of group: IBDnet (www.ibdnet.ch)

The IBDnet is a Swiss interest group of medical doctors and scientists specialising in Inflammatory Bowel Disease. The aim is the promotion of research and communication on aetiology, diagnosis and therapy in order to improve patient outcomes.

Number of active members: 137

Switzerland has roughly 475 gastroenterologists and hepatologists, 350 of whom are located in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and 125 in the French- and Italian-speaking part.

The IBDnet has 122 members, with a steering committee of 15 IBD specialists.

Number of meetings per year: 

• Steering committee meetings: four per year; one General Assembly per year.
• Education:
  • Educational meetings with credits for HCPs: One or two major (2- or 3-day meetings, postgraduate course) and 10–12 minor (half-day meetings or webinars)
  • Educational meetings for IBD Nurses: Two 1-day meetings
• Expert meetings: The IBDnet holds one or two expert meetings per year to develop Swiss expert opinions for peer-reviewed publication.
• Patient Relations: The IBDnet broadly supports and organises four to six patient events or webinars per year in collaboration with the patient association CCS (Crohn Colitis Switzerland). Most speakers at these patient information events are IBDnet steering committee members. Furthermore, in collaboration with the patient association, IBDnet develops and releases patient information guidebooks.

Meetings in 2020: 17 accredited educational activities (11 webinars for HCPs, three webinars for patients, two 1-day nurse workshops, one 3-day postgraduate course)

President and Secretary: President: Stephan Vavricka, Zurich, Secretary: Nadine Zahnd-Straumann, Zurich

National Representatives: Emanuel Burri, Liestal and Michel H. Maillard, Lausanne

Joined ECCO in: Switzerland was among the founding members of ECCO.

Incidence of IBD in the country: No exact number available. IBD incidence is estimated to be 2 per 1000 persons per year.

At the 15th Congress of ECCO in Vienna, the Young ECCO Committee (Y-ECCO) and the Clinical Research Committee of ECCO (ClinCom) jointly conducted a survey of attendees entitled “Decision-making in IBD dysplasia management”. The results are currently being prepared for publication. This project followed on from other successful surveys which led to submission of abstracts at the ECCO Congress and publication of full manuscripts in scientific journals.

Charlotte Hedin © ECCO

Britta Siegmund is Medical Director of the Medical Department, Division of Gastroenterology, Infectiology and Rheumatology, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and holds many other important national and international roles within the scientific and medical communities. She has an extensive publication record in the mucosal immunology of IBD. She is also President-Elect of ECCO.

Laparoscopic ileocaecal resection versus infliximab for terminal ileitis in Crohn’s disease: retrospective long-term follow-up of the LIR!C trial  

Stevens TW, Haasnoot ML, D’Haens GR, Buskens CJ, De Groof EJ, Eshuis EJ, Gardenbroek TJ, Mol B, Stokkers PCF, Bemelman WA, Ponsioen CY on behalf of the LIR!C study group

Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol 2020 Jun 30;S2468-1253(20)30117-5. doi: 10.1016/S2468-1253(20)30117-5. Online ahead of print.

Radha Gadhok © Radha Gadhok

Introduction

The positioning of medical therapies in the management of Crohn’s Disease (CD) continues to be debated [1] whilst surgery is reserved for cases with disease complications or failure of medical therapy.  The LIR!C trial [2] provided evidence for  surgical resection as an alternative to infliximab (IFX) in the management of localised terminal ileitis, a common presentation of CD [3].

Briefly, the LIR!C trial reported quality of life scores (IBDQ) among 143 adult patients with terminal ileitis (<40 cm) who underwent randomisation to IFX induction/maintenance or ileocaecal resection. Patients were recruited from 29 secondary and tertiary Dutch and British centres. Exclusion criteria included non-inflammatory disease, prestenotic dilatation, abscess and previous surgery. Inclusion criteria included failing at least three months of conventional therapy [immunomodulator (IM) and/or corticosteroid (CS)] [2]

No benefit of continuing vs stopping 5-aminosalicylates in patients with ulcerative colitis escalated to anti-metabolite therapy

Singh S, Kim J, Zhu W, Dulai P, Sandborn WJ, Jairath V

Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2020;52:481–91.

Rebecca Reynolds © Rebecca Reynolds

Introduction

First introduced by Svartz in 1942, 5-aminosalicylates (5-ASAs) are a well-established and effective first-line therapy for the induction and maintenance of remission in patients with mild-to-moderate Ulcerative Colitis (UC). They remain the most frequently prescribed medication for UC and are known to be effective and well tolerated [1]. Between 87% and 98% of UC patients receive 5-ASA treatment within the first year of diagnosis and 60%–87% continue on this treatment at ten years [2, 3].

Escalation to anti-metabolites (thiopurines or methotrexate) and/or biologic or small molecule therapy is often required for UC patients with a more aggressive disease course. Whilst it is now accepted that discontinuing 5-ASA therapy when escalating to a biologic is not associated with adverse outcomes, less is known about the therapeutic benefit of continuation of 5-ASAs with an antimetabolite [2, 4].

Singh et al conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate the pattern of 5-ASA use in patients with UC following escalation to an antimetabolite. The study evaluated patients escalated to antimetabolite therapy (stopping 5-ASA vs short-term 5-ASA use for <6 months vs persistent 5-ASA use for >6 months) and compared the risk of clinically important complications based on the pattern of 5-ASA use in these patients. They hypothesised that continuing 5-ASA therapy would not be more beneficial than stopping it.