RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the mucosal healing in the terminal ileum, colon and small bowel in patients receiving infliximab treatment for small bowel Crohn's disease (SBCD). METHODS: The clinical data of 18 patients with SBCD treated with infliximab were analyzed for laboratory findings (routine blood tests, C-reative protein, and albumin), Crohn's disease activity index (CDAI), Lewis score (LS), Crohn's disease simplified endoscopic score (SES-CD) and adverse effects before and after 30 weeks of infliximab treatment. RESULTS: SES-CD, LS, CDAI and CRP were all decreased significantly, but the body mass index and albumin were significantly increased in the 18 patients after 30 weeks of IFX treatment. Sixteen (88.9%) of the patients were in clinical remission, 10 (58.8%) showed terminal ileum and colonic mucosal healing, 4 (22.2%) showed small bowel mucosal healing, and 3 (17.6%) were in deep remission. The 4 patients with small bowel mucosal healing all showed terminal ileum and colon mucosal healing, and 6 patients with terminal ileum and colon mucosal healing did not show small bowel mucosal healing. CONCLUSION: Infliximab treatment can effectively reduce inflammatory activity, induce and maintain clinical remission of SBCD and achieve mucosal healing; small bowel mucosal healing occurs later than terminal ileum and colonic mucosal healing, indicating the importance of small bowel mucosal healing in efficacy analysis of the treatment.
