Serum antibodies and anthropometric data at diagnosis in pediatric Crohn's disease.

BACKGROUND: Serum antibodies, including ASCA, anti-OmpC, and ANCA, correlate with disease location and predict disease phenotype in inflammatory bowel disease. AIM: The objective of this study was to determine relationships between serum antibody status and anthropometric data for children with newly diagnosed Crohn's disease. METHODS: A retrospective review was conducted on children diagnosed with Crohn's disease at our institution from 2003 to 2008. Patients who had ASCA IgA, ASCA IgG, anti-OmpC, and pANCA antibodies, and anthropometric data measured before diagnosis and therapy were included. Z-scores for height and weight were compared among groups according to the presence of specific antibodies. Spearman's rank correlation was used to assess association between antibodies and growth data. RESULTS: One hundred and two patients, mean age 11.9 years, met the inclusion criteria. Patients with the presence of any of the four antibodies had lower mean height and weight z-scores than patients without any antibodies present. When individual antibodies were studied, patients with positive ASCA titers had lower mean weight and height z-scores than patients without any antibodies present. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient demonstrated a significant association between increasing ASCA titers and lower weight z-scores, but not lower height z-scores. CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric patients with newly diagnosed Crohn's disease and the presence of ASCA antibodies have lower mean height and weight z-scores. This study provides evidence that specific subsets of children with Crohn's disease may be at greater risk of growth impairment.

Enalapril prevents impaired nitric oxide synthase-dependent dilatation of cerebral arterioles in diabetic rats.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Our goal was to identify the effects of chronic treatment with enalapril on cerebrovascular dysfunction and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) protein in diabetic rats. METHODS: Rats were assigned to 1 of 4 groups: nondiabetic, diabetic, nondiabetic/enalapril-treated, and diabetic/enalapril-treated groups. Rats assigned to the nondiabetic groups were injected with vehicle (sodium citrate buffer), and rats assigned to the diabetic groups were injected with streptozotocin (50 mg/kg IP). Enalapril (10 mg/kg per day) was administered in the drinking water and coincided with the injection of vehicle or streptozotocin. Two to 3 months later, we examined responses of pial arterioles to nitric oxide synthase (NOS)-dependent agonists (acetylcholine and ADP) and a NOS-independent agonist (nitroglycerin). After these functional studies, we harvested cerebral microvessels for Western blot analysis of eNOS protein. RESULTS: We found that acetylcholine- and ADP-induced dilatation of pial arterioles was impaired in diabetic compared with nondiabetic rats. In addition, while enalapril did not alter responses in nondiabetic rats, enalapril prevented diabetes-induced impairment of NOS-dependent vasodilatation. Furthermore, eNOS protein was higher in diabetic than in nondiabetic rats, and enalapril did not produce a further increase in eNOS protein in enalapril-treated diabetic rats compared with untreated diabetic rats. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that enalapril prevents cerebrovascular dysfunction in diabetic rats. We speculate that the protective role of enalapril may be independent of an alteration in eNOS protein in cerebral microvessels.