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Review
. 2014 Sep 18:7:359-67.
doi: 10.2147/CEG.S45297. eCollection 2014.

Management of inflammatory bowel disease in poor responders to infliximab

Iván Guerra  1 , Fernando Bermejo  1
Affiliations
Review

Management of inflammatory bowel disease in poor responders to infliximab

Iván Guerra et al. Clin Exp Gastroenterol. .

Abstract

Infliximab (IFX) is an effective treatment for inducing and maintaining response in Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis patients. Some patients present lack of response or loss of response to IFX during maintenance therapy. Empirical management with combination therapy with an immunomodulator, IFX dose escalation, or switching IFX for another antitumor necrosis factor-α drug, mainly adalimumab, is common in clinical practice. Selecting the best choice with the help of serum drug concentrations and trough IFX antibody concentrations could be a very interesting approach. In addition to surgery, a broad spectrum of new drugs has been tested and could expand treatment options in the near future.

Keywords: Crohn’s disease; anti-TNF; inflammatory bowel disease; infliximab; treatment; ulcerative colitis.

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