Ishida N, Miyazu T, Tamura S, Tani S, Yamade M, Iwaizumi M, Hamaya Y, Osawa S, Furuta T, Sugimoto K. Early serum albumin changes in patients with ulcerative colitis treated with tacrolimus will predict clinical outcome. World J Gastroenterol 2021; 27(22): 3109-3120 [PMID: 34168412 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i22.3109]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ken Sugimoto, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, First Department of Medicine, Hamamatsu University of School of Medicine, 1-20-1 Handayama Higashi-ku Hamamatsu, Hamamatsu 431-3192, Japan. sugimken@hama-med.ac.jp
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Natsuki Ishida, Takahiro Miyazu, Satoshi Tamura, Shinya Tani, Mihoko Yamade, Yasushi Hamaya, Ken Sugimoto, First Department of Medicine, Hamamatsu University of School of Medicine, Hamamatsu 431-3192, Japan
Moriya Iwaizumi, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Hamamatsu University of School of Medicine, Hamamatsu 431-3192, Japan
Satoshi Osawa, Department of Endoscopic and Photodynamic Medicine, Hamamatsu University of School of Medicine, Hamamatsu 431-3192, Japan
Takahisa Furuta, Center for Clinical Research, Hamamatsu University of School of Medicine, Hamamatsu 43131, Japan
Author contributions: Ishida N contributed to this work; Ishida N and Sugimoto K designed the study; Sugimoto K, Miyazu T, Tamura S, and Tani S collected the data; Yamade M, Iwaizumi M, and Hamaya Y analyzed the data; Ishida N and Sugimoto K wrote the paper; Osawa S and Furuta T provided critical insights regarding paper preparation.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Hamamatsu University School of Medicine (No. 20-356).
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ken Sugimoto, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, First Department of Medicine, Hamamatsu University of School of Medicine, 1-20-1 Handayama Higashi-ku Hamamatsu, Hamamatsu 431-3192, Japan. sugimken@hama-med.ac.jp
Received: March 5, 2021 Peer-review started: March 5, 2021 First decision: March 27, 2021 Revised: April 11, 2021 Accepted: May 22, 2021 Article in press: May 22, 2021 Published online: June 14, 2021
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
There are cases of refractory ulcerative colitis in which tacrolimus does not induce remission.
Research motivation
A biomarker capable of predicting the induction effect of tacrolimus is desired.
Research objectives
The usefulness of serum albumin as a predictor of the therapeutic effect of oral tacrolimus for ulcerative colitis was investigated.
Research methods
Patients treated with tacrolimus at our hospital were divided into a remission group and a failure group, and data including serum albumin at the start of observation and at the first and second weeks were retrospectively examined.
Research results
Lower albumin levels in week 2 than in week 0 after achieving trough levels of tacrolimus were shown to increase risk for failure, including colectomy and switch to biologics, within 3 mo.
Research conclusions
Early serum albumin changes in patients with ulcerative colitis treated with tacrolimus predict clinical outcome.
Research perspectives
In cases where albumin levels in week 2 are lower than week 0, changes to other treatment options, including surgical total colectomy, should be considered as soon as possible.
