Abstract
Background
Current therapeutic goals in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) include not only the mere absence of symptoms but also the resolution of endoscopic lesions, so-called mucosal healing (MH), which has been related to better outcomes. Data regarding the achievement of MH with vedolizumab (VDZ) in real-life clinical practice is still scarce.
Methods
Retrospective cohort study was carried out in a tertiary hospital between January 2015 and April 2019 including patients with a basal colonoscopy showing activity and who achieved clinical remission under treatment with VDZ, defined by partial Mayo score <2 for ulcerative colitis (UC) and Harvey–Bradshaw Index score (HBI) <4 for Crohn’s disease (CD). Surveillance colonoscopy was performed along with the follow-up according to clinical practice. In UC patients, MH was defined as Mayo Endoscopic Subscore (MES) = 0; the endoscopic response was defined by a decrease in MES ≥1 point. In CD, MH was defined by achievement SES-CD = 0–3 or Rutgeerts index i0; the endoscopic response was defined by a decrease of SES-CD of 50% or Rutgeerts index <i2 with at least 1 point of decease compared with baseline.
Results
In total, 118 patients treated with VDZ were analysed, but only 45 met inclusion criteria with a median follow-up of 21 (IQR: 14–19) months. Surveillance colonoscopy was performed after a median time of 12 months (IQR:9–17) of treatment. MH achieved in 33/45 patients (73%): 17/23 CD patients (74%) and 16/22 UC patients (73%). The endoscopic response was achieved in 9 of the remaining 12 patients: 3/6 CD patients and 6/6 UC patients. Only 3 (7%) of patients included showed no endoscopic benefit at the time of surveillance endoscopy. In multivariate analysis, probability of not achieving MH was 75% in patients previously treated with immunosuppressants (ISS) (HR 0.25, 0.11–0.55 IC95; p = 0.001) and 60% in patients previously treated with anti-TNFα (HR 0.40, 0.18–0.90 95% CI; p = 0.026). Type of IBD, concomitant ISS, corticosteroid use at induction, baseline endoscopy score or duration of disease before VDZ treatment were not associated with the achievement of MH.
Conclusion
In our experience, most of the patients who achieve clinical remission with VDZ also achieve MH. Refractory patients were less likely to achieve MH despite having achieved clinical remission.
Comparison of high definition with standard white light endoscopy for detection of dysplastic lesions during surveillance colonoscopy in patients with inflammatory bowel disease
