NASPGHAN 2021 Nutrition Highlights

Thanks to Kipp Ellsworth for forwarding this link:

Nutrition for IBD website: NASPGHAN 2021 Nutritional Highlights

On this website: “Four presentations/lectures were released at the Nutritional Therapy for IBD Virtual Booth that provide a comprehensive review and update of the latest information regarding the use of EEN and therapeutic diets in the management of IBD”

Why Do We Need Dietary Therapies for IBD

Presenter: Lindsey Albenberg, DO

Dr. Lindsey Albenberg, a clinician and researcher from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, describes the rapidly increasing incidence of IBD and its relationship to diet, microbiome and the immune system. She reviews the rationale and science supporting the use of dietary therapy to compliment drug therapy as an avenue to potentially achieve higher, more sustainable and possibly safer levels of remission long term in pediatric patients.

The Crohn’s Disease Exclusion Diet Updates: December 2021

Presenter: Rotem Sigall Boneh, RD. Rotem Sigall Boneh, RD, a primary researcher and developer of CDED, provides an overview of the accumulating data with CDED in combination with PEN, including the newly published results of adult data with important endoscopic findings and further shares real world experience and application of nutritional therapy.

IBD Anti-inflammatory Diet or IBD-AID: Proof of Concept

Presenter Ana Maldonado-Contreras, MSc, PhD. Dr. Ana Maldonado-Contreras, a lead researcher in IBD-AID explains the relationship between diet, microbiome and immune function with the design and rational of IBD-AID to manipulate the microbiome. She shares the recently published data of the impact of IBD-AID on the microbiome and cytokine levels specific to food components.

Nutritional Therapy: Perioperative + Complicated Crohn’s Disease

Presenter Andrew S. Day, MB, ChB, MD, FRACP, AGAF

At the NTforIBD Nutritional Symposium prepared for NASPGHAN2021, Professor Day provides insight into the important role of EEN, an underutilized option to both induce remission and improve outcomes in complicated and peri-operative patients.

Dietary Therapy for Adults with Crohn’s Disease

H Yanai et al. The Lancet 2021; The Crohn’s disease exclusion diet for induction and maintenance of remission in adults with mild-to-moderate Crohn’s disease (CDED-AD): an open-label, pilot, randomised trial https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-1253(21)00299-5

In this open-label trial of adults with mild-to-moderate biologic naive Crohn’s disease, key findings:

  • At week 6, 13 (68%) of 19 patients in the CDED plus partial enteral nutrition group and 12 (57%) of 21 patients in the CDED group had achieved clinical remission (p=0·4618)
  • Among the 25 patients in remission at week 6, 20 (80%) were in sustained remission at week 24 (12 patients in the CDED plus partial enteral nutrition group and eight in the CDED alone group)
  • 14 (35%) of 40 patients were in endoscopic remission at week 24 (eight patients in the CDED plus partial enteral nutrition group and six in the CDED alone group)

My take: Dietary therapy may be effective option for motivated adult patients with Crohn’s disease.

Related blog posts:

CDED + PEN: An Alternative Diet to Exclusive Enteral Nutrition?

T Niseteo et al Nutr Clin Pract 2021: 1-7. Modified Crohn’s disease exclusion diet is equally effective as exclusive enteral nutrition: Real-world data Thanks to Kipp Ellsworth for this reference.

This was a retrospective study with 61 children, median age, 14.4 years; overall, 42 (69%) achieved clinical remission based on weighted PCDAI. The study compared a modified Crohn’s disease exclusion diet (CDED) (modified as 80% in this group had 1–2 weeks of EEN initially) to EEN; PEN accounted for ~50% of calories CDED/PEN group received mainly modulen whereas EEN received a number of standard polymeric isocaloric formulas (eg. pediasure, osmolite, ensure plus). Concomitant medical therapy was used in ~80% of patients (most often azathioprine).

Key finding: Clinical remission was similar in both groups: 27 of 41 (65.9%) received EEN and 15 of 20 (75.0%) received CDED + PEN after 6-8 weeks of treatment. In addition, both groups had improvement in CRP and Hemoglobin.

*Several authors grants/payments from formula manufacturers.

My take: This study while favorable towards a combination of CDED/PEN is limited by small numbers, retrospective design, limited followup and absence of data on mucosal healing.

Related blog posts:

K Lambert et al. AP&T 2021; https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.16549. Systematic review with meta-analysis: dietary intake in adults with inflammatory bowel disease. Thanks to Ben Gold for this reference.

This meta-analysis included 19 studies of adults with IBD involving dietary intake. Results “show inadequate energy for all subgroups of adults with IBD (mean intake in adults with IBD 1980 ± 130 kcal), as well as fiber (14 ± 4 g), folate (246 ± 33 mg) and calcium (529 ± 114 mg) per day.” Further, “In comparison to the healthy control groups, IBD patients consumed significantly less dietary fiber (SMD −0.59; 95% CI, −0.73 to −0.46).” 

Trial by Diet Approach for Crohn’s Disease in Children

RS Boneh et al. Clin Gastroenterol Hepato 2021; 19: 752-759. Dietary Therapies Induce Rapid Response and Remission in Pediatric Patients With Active Crohn’s Disease

The authors collected  data from a multicenter randomized trial of the CD exclusion diet (CDED) in children (mean age, 14.2 ± 2.7 y) with Crohn’s disease who were randomly assigned to groups given either exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN, n = 34) or the CDED with 50% (partial) enteral nutrition (PEN) (n = 39). 

The CDED has been discussed previously on this blog; it aims to avoid animal and saturated fat, milk fat, gluten, specific emulsifiers, taurine, red (reduced heme) and processed meat, and certain fibers from some fruits and vegetables. In addition to excluding patients who received competing therapies (eg. steroids, immunomodulators, and biologics), the authors excluded patients with isolated large bowel disease (L2).

Key findings:

  • At week 3 of the diet, 82% of patients in the CDED group and 85% of patients in the EEN group had a dietary response or remission. Median serum levels of C-reactive protein had decreased from 24 mg/L at baseline to 5.0 mg/L at week 3 (P < .001)
  • Among the 49 patients in remission at week 6, 46 patients (94%) had had a diet response or remission by week 3 and 81% were in clinical remission by week 3

The authors note that the rapid response to dietary therapy suggests a role for a ‘trial by diet’. As such, dietary therapy could be used as monotherapy, for patients failing other therapies, or as a bridge to biological therapy. The authors note that the exact reasons for response to dietary therapy are unsettled and could be “due to both foods excluded and foods enriched in the diet.” In addition, they note that diet appears to be a trigger for inflammation and that reintroduction of foods leads to rebound in inflammation (eg. higher calprotectin) and dysbiosis.

My take: This study shows that dietary therapy works quickly. In this small study, the effectiveness of combined CDED with 50% PEN was similar to EEN.

Related blog posts:

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