Oral capsule as effective as invasive procedures for deliver

[cronus]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 100914.php

Oral capsule as effective as invasive procedures for delivery of fecal transplant

A noninvasive method of delivering a promising therapy for persistent Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infection appears to be as effective as treatment via colonoscopy or through a nasogastric tube. In their JAMA report, receiving early online release to coincide with a presentation at the Infectious Diseases Society of America's ID Week conference, investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) report that oral administration of the therapy called fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) in acid-resistant capsules was as successful as more invasive methods in eliminating recurrent diarrhea caused by C. difficile.

"Numerous reports have shown that FMT is effective in treating active C. difficile infection and preventing recurrences in patients whose infections failed to respond to standard treatments," says Ilan Youngster, MD, MMSc, a fellow in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at MGH and at Boston Children's Hospital, corresponding author of the JAMA report. "The procedures that have been used before – colonoscopies, nasogastric tubes, even enemas – all have potential risks and discomforts for patients. The use of capsules simplifies the procedure immensely, potentially making it accessible to a greater population."

Certain strains of C. difficile – which currently causes about 250,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths each year in the U.S. – have become highly resistant to treatment, leading to a 30 percent treatment failure rate in patients infected with those strains. Since antibiotic therapy also kills off the normal population of beneficial intestinal microbes that can keep pathologic species in check, antibiotic therapy could actually make the situation worse. FMT is believed to restore the normal balance of beneficial microbes, and studies in animals and humans using fresh fecal material – usually delivered by colonoscopy – have had success rates around 90 percent.

Earlier this year the same MGH research team showed that delivering frozen fecal material for FMT either by colonoscopy or nasogastric tube was equally effective. Using frozen material offers the potential of maintaining a bank of frozen samples from donors prescreened for any health issues, reducing the risks of transmitting new infections and the need to recruit and screen donors for each patient. The current study was designed to investigate whether delivering FMT orally through capsules designed to open upon reaching the small intestine would be just as effective.

(continued, chocolate slush...)

[JimC]

Eat shit and don't die...

[cronus]

Eat shit and don't die...

...yellow snow for dessert.