Michel Adamina © ECCO

The 12th European Colorectal Congress takes place from Monday, December 3 to Thursday, December 6, 2018 in St. Gallen, Switzerland, and will be preceded by the Colorectal Masterclass on Sunday, December 2. About 1,400 participants from 80 countries are expected to attend the St. Gallen Colorectal Week (www.colorectalsurgery.eu). 

Catherine Wall  © ECCO

Nutrition screening tools are commonly used in clinical practice to identify patients who may be at nutrition risk. Patients identified as being at nutrition risk should be referred for nutritional assessment prior to implementation of a food and nutrition intervention as required. The use of nutrition screening tools can identify those patients most likely to benefit from a dietitian's input and can assist with the allocation of scarce dietetic resources. 

Petra Hartmann © ECCO

Once again, N-ECCO is offering an outstanding range of clinical and educational opportunities for nurses attending the ECCO’19 Copenhagen Congress.

The programmes for each activity continue to be developed on the basis of the evaluation forms from the previous year in order to meet your needs.

Tim Raine © ECCO

The upcoming ECCO Congress will see a new addition to the line-up of workshops offered. Under the supervision of the Guidelines Committee (GuiCom), we are running a workshop specifically designed to offer ECCO Members the opportunity to increase their awareness and knowledge of the GRADE clinical guideline development methodology.

Giovanni Maconi © ECCO

Modern diagnostic imaging is no longer being employed purely in a diagnostic role in IBD, in order to confirm or exclude the disease and its complications; rather, it is now becoming a crucial aid in the management of patients, in particular for the tailoring and monitoring of therapy. Thus, alongside diagnostic indications ranging from early diagnosis to the detection of abdominal complications, imaging techniques are increasingly being used for the assessment and prediction of many other factors, including evaluation of response to treatment both early after its introduction (as part of the step-up approach to treatment) and in the long term (to assist in decision making with respect to exit strategies, e.g. by helping to determine the right time to suspend a biological therapy in patients successfully treated over a long period).

Giovanni Maconi  © ECCO

Marietta Iacucci  © ECCO

In 2019 the Educational Programme at the ECCO Congress will again include two workshops devoted to IBD imaging. The first will be centered on basic endoscopy, ultrasound and MRI while the second will focus on advancements in intestinal ultrasound. Both workshops will be possible thanks to the extensive cooperation of gastroenterologists with experience in intestinal imaging from ECCO and our partner societies.

The 1^st ECCO-ESGAR Basic Imaging Workshop will educate attendees in how to make a precise diagnosis and how to better direct the therapeutic management of IBD patients using the latest imaging technologies. It is designed for gastroenterologists, endoscopists, surgeons, paediatricians, pathologists and other interdisciplinary medical experts interested in diagnostic imaging and endoscopy of Inflammatory Bowel Disease(s) (IBD).

Marieke Pierik © ECCO

The Epidemiological Committee of ECCO (EpiCom) works for the optimisation of epidemiological research in the field of IBD across Europe. Epidemiology focusses on the factors that influence health, the control and long-term outcome of diseases and the measurement of health outcomes. Epidemiology is data driven and to avoid bias and guarantee validity, systematic data collection, meticulous study design and careful selection of the population and method of analysis are crucial.

An interview with María Chaparro

Javier P. Gisbert: Investigator-initiated studies (IIS) are clinical studies initiated and managed by non-pharmaceutical company researchers, including individual investigators, institutions, collaborative study groups and cooperative groups. The researcher is responsible for the legal and regulatory responsibilities of the trial sponsor for the conduct and management of the study as defined by all applicable laws and regulations. Your group at La Princesa Hospital (Madrid, Spain) has remarkable experience in this type of study. What attracts you most to such studies?

Francesca Maria Onidi © Francesca Maria Onidi

The award of an N-ECCO Travel Grant, organised by ECCO, enabled me to spend time as an intern in the prestigious Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Centre at Humanitas Research Hospital, the largest IBD centre in Italy. The Centre provides the most innovative treatments and therapeutic strategies for IBD patients in accordance with current scientific evidence and offers a multidisciplinary approach to IBD with the help of industry experts and novel technologies. At the Humanitas outpatient clinic dedicated to IBD, patients are followed by IBD nurse Simona Radice. In addition to the provision of medical assistance to patients, the Centre is strongly engaged in research activities aimed at developing new treatments and diagnostic and/or therapeutic strategies. Participation in clinical trials is subject to a preliminary clinical evaluation during a specialist visit to the Centre.

The role of Nlrp9b in regulating intestinal inflammation  

Danping Zheng © Danping Zheng

Aim of the research

Innate immune signalling pathways, including inflammasome-forming Noll-like receptors (NLR), are thought to mediate the risk of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) since this system acts as the first line of defence in the recognition of enteric pathogens. In our preliminary study, we identified a new NLR member, Nlrp9b, whose role in the pathogenesis of IBD remains to be clarified. The aim of our study is to investigate the role of Nlrp9b in regulating intestinal inflammation and the underlying mechanisms.