Ultrasound vs MRI in Crohn’s: why “response” can depend on the scanner
In a prospective, blinded, multicentre study of 35 patients with endoscopically active Crohn’s disease, intestinal ultrasound (IUS) and magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) were compared before and after medical treatment to see how well they agree on transmural response. At baseline, IUS detected more active segments than MRE (59 vs 42), while agreement on disease location and behavior was only moderate. After treatment, both modalities showed decreases in global activity scores, but agreement on defining transmural response ranged from fair to moderate across scoring comparisons, and bowel wall thickness normalization was similar yet not strongly concordant. The takeaway: these tools can both track improvement, but they do not always classify “healing” the same way.
Why it might matter to you:
If you use imaging to judge whether Crohn’s therapy is working, variability between IUS and MRE can shift treatment decisions even when the patient is on the same regimen. Keeping the same modality across follow-ups may improve interpretability in both clinical pathways and research endpoints. It also flags where harmonized definitions of transmural response could strengthen study comparability.
Opioids plus benzodiazepines in GI cancer: compounding risk in older adults
This surgical oncology article addresses the “double jeopardy” of co-prescribing opioids and benzodiazepines in older adults with gastrointestinal cancer. The paper frames the clinical concern that combining these drug classes can amplify harms that matter in frail or medically complex patients—particularly sedation, respiratory compromise, falls, and other downstream complications—while symptom control needs remain high in cancer care. Although the provided feed excerpt does not include the study’s detailed results, the focus is squarely on characterizing risk tied to this common prescribing pattern in an older GI oncology population.
Why it might matter to you:
If you co-manage GI cancer patients—especially those with hepatic dysfunction, malnutrition, or high symptom burden—this topic intersects directly with safer analgesia and anxiolysis planning. It can inform medication reconciliation workflows and peri-procedural decision-making (for endoscopy, interventional radiology, or surgery). It may also support targeted stewardship efforts for high-risk combinations in older patients.
Gene therapy’s second hit: diet-linked liver injury in a myopathy model
In Science Translational Medicine, researchers report that AAV8 gene therapy combined with dietary insults can precipitate cholestatic liver disease in a mouse model of X-linked myotubular myopathy. The work highlights an interaction between a therapeutic vector exposure and metabolic/environmental stressors, resulting in a liver phenotype characterized as cholestatic injury. While framed in a neuromuscular disease context, the key message is hepatobiliary: liver risk may not be attributable to a single factor, but to a synergy between treatment and diet-related stress.
Why it might matter to you:
As liver monitoring becomes routine in advanced therapeutics, this study underscores how “background” exposures like diet can modify hepatotoxicity signals and complicate causality. It may influence how you interpret cholestatic patterns in patients receiving novel biologics or gene-based interventions. It also points to the value of counseling and risk stratification that includes modifiable metabolic factors when hepatobiliary safety is a concern.
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