Mesalamine dose escalation reduces fecal calprotectin in patients with quiescent ulcerative colitis.

ABSTRACT:

Background & aims

Among patients with quiescent ulcerative colitis (UC), lower fecal concentrations of calprotectin are associated with lower rates of relapse. We performed an open-label, randomized controlled trial to investigate whether increasing doses of mesalamine reduce concentrations of fecal calprotectin (FC) in patients with quiescent UC.

Methods

We screened 119 patients with UC in remission on the basis of Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index scores, FC >50 μg/g, and intake of no more than 3 g/day mesalamine. Participants taking mesalamine formulations other than multimatrix mesalamine were switched to multimatrix mesalamine (2.4 g/day) for 6 weeks; 52 participants were then randomly assigned (1:1) to a group that continued its current dose of mesalamine (control

SUBMITTER: Osterman MT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4214893 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature