Giovanni Maconi © ECCO

Participating speakers and chairs: Simon Travis (United Kingdom), Raf Bisschops (Belgium), Raya Atreya (Germany), Peter Irving (United Kingdom), James Lindsay (United Kingdom), Matthieu Allez (France), Massimo Fantini (Italy) and Peter Lakatos (Hungary)

The ECCO Endoscopy Workshop reached its 3^rd edition in 2018 and has become a mainstay of the educational activities of ECCO. The workshop was organised by the Educational Committee (EduCom) and was designed to meet the needs of IBD specialists with some experience in endoscopy. 

Pascal Juillerat © ECCO

The 16^th Intensive Advanced IBD Course took place before the ECCO meeting as the highlight of the educational program which runs in conjunction with the conference.

This well-known course, which has been an a staple of the ECCO Congress almost since the beginning of ECCO, took place once again with a full attendance from Europe and abroad. Overall, 82 doctors attended the course from 37 countries and were treated to a comprehensive update on IBD.

Naila Arebi © ECCO

An introduction to pharmaco-epidemiology: How to interpret real world data for clinical practice 

The Epidemiological Committee (EpiCom) organised their 4^th workshop at the ECCO’18 Congress in Vienna.  Delegates were welcomed by Ebbe Langholz, who introduced the sessions with a short video on the UR-CARE database to illustrate the importance of databases and their potential across Europe. 

John Mansfield © ECCO

The 6^th ClinCom Workshop focussed on two current themes in IBD research: Evolving endpoints in clinical trials and comparative effectiveness research (CER).

Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet (Nancy, France) described the drivers that have led to the move from Crohn’s Disease Activity Index (CDAI) and Mayo scores to patient-reported outcomes (PROs) that just record clinical symptoms. The ultimate therapeutic goal is not only to reduce symptoms but also to return the patient to a normal life without disability. For Ulcerative Colitis (UC) the PRO uses rectal bleeding and stool frequency scores from the Mayo score, while for Crohn’s Disease (CD) abdominal pain and stool frequency scores are used. Many clinical trials also aim to show resolution of mucosal inflammation so endoscopic scores are frequently being used as co-primary endpoints with symptom scores. Some problems with PROs remain to be settled, especially the cut-off values for active disease, response and remission, and also the variability of patients’ assessment of loose stools and rectal bleeding.

Jihye Park © Jihye Park

Most patients with chronic IBD are diagnosed at a young age. After baseline diagnosis many of these young patients have to undergo repeated imaging procedures during the variable clinical course of their disease. Ultrasound, CT and MRI are used to image transmural alterations and extra-intestinal manifestations of the disease and to monitor response to treatment. 

Janneke van der Woude © ECCO

One of the main goals of ECCO is to promote IBD-related basic and clinical research as well as to foster interaction and productive collaboration among European research groups working in the IBD field. To achieve this goal, ECCO continues to award Grants, Fellowships and Travel Awards.

For 2018 the number of awardees has increased to an amazing total of more than 30.

Shomron Ben-Horin © ECCO

Michael Scharl © ECCO

Fat in IBD – Much more than an innocent bystander 

Within the framework of the 6^th SciCom Workshop, the role of fat and lipids in IBD pathogenesis was highlighted. Six highly interesting talks shed light on the fact that fat is much more than an innocent bystander in IBD.

Another record number of abstracts has been submitted for the 13^th Congress of ECCO. Out of 1,366 submitted scientific abstracts, 1,012 abstracts have been accepted.

Of these abstracts, 38 have been selected as Oral Presentations during the Scientific Programme and another 80 were selected as Digital Oral Presentations. Each of these presentations was reviewed by ECCO Committee Members in order to select the winners of the Top 10 DOPs, IIS Abstract Awards, and the Y-ECCO Abstract Awards.

6,676 delegates attended the 13^th Congress of ECCO in Vienna

The 13th Congress of ECCO – Inflammatory Bowel Diseases 2018, which was held on February 14-17, 2018 in Vienna, Austria, attracted a total number of 6,676 delegates from 86 different countries. Since the inaugural ECCO Congress in 2006 in Amsterdam, at which there were 350 delegates, participant numbers have steadily increased, as shown in the graph below:

ECCO Congress participation 2006-2018 © ECCO

Silvio Danese  ©  ECCO

Dear ECCO friends,

Thank you to everyone for once again making the ECCO Congress, Europe’s most important event in the field of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), such a wonderful occasion. Held this year in Vienna, the Congress attracted 6,676 participants from over 80 countries and the number of accepted abstracts surpassed 1,000.  Thank you especially to our invited speakers for delivering such exciting presentations and also to the ECCO Committee Members for their hard work and dedication, which helped to make the Congress so successful.