Crohn's disease in the elderly. A statistical comparison with younger patients matched for sex and duration of disease

To better characterize Crohn's disease in the elderly, 24 patients ranging in age from 64 to 85 years were reviewed and compared with a younger group (20 to 61 years of age) matched for sex and duration of disease. Forty-one variables encompassing clinical, laboratory, and radiologic data and medical and surgical aspects of treatment were analyzed. The older group was characterized by a longer delay in diagnosis, more hematochezia, and a higher incidence of diverticular and cardiovascular disease. Elderly patients had less pain, less often a palpable abdominal mass, less small-bowel disease, less drug treatment, and no family history of inflammatory bowel disease. Otherwise, the disease in the two groups had similar manifestations, and no discriminating features to enable easy diagnosis in the elderly were found. Crohn's disease must be considered when evaluating older patients with diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss, and bleeding.     

Thalmic vaciuation in acute Wernicke's encephalopathy

Two patients with acute Wemicke's encephalopathy, with the diagnosis confirmed pathologically at autopsy, showed substantial vacuolation and neuronal degeneration in discrete nuclei of the thalamus. Thalamic vacuolation has not been described previously in acute Wernicke's encephalopathy. The use of frozen sections to minimize processing artifact was fundamental in demonstrating this pathology. The pathogenic mechanism underlying this change appears to be different to that seen in the more typical periventricular, mamillary body and brainstem lesions. We hypothesize that a specific neural pathway may be involved and suggest that this pathway could be the ascending nitric oxide-containing cholinergic pathway from the brainstem.     

Interleukin-21 combined with ART reduces inflammation and viral reservoir in SIV-infected macaques

Despite successful control of viremia, many HIV-infected individuals given antiretroviral therapy (ART) exhibit residual inflammation, which is associated with non–AIDS-related morbidity and mortality and may contribute to virus persistence during ART. Here, we investigated the effects of IL-21 administration on both inflammation and virus persistence in ART-treated, SIV-infected rhesus macaques (RMs). Compared with SIV-infected animals only given ART, SIV-infected RMs given both ART and IL-21 showed improved restoration of intestinal Th17 and Th22 cells and a more effective reduction of immune activation in blood and intestinal mucosa, with the latter maintained through 8 months after ART interruption. Additionally, IL-21, in combination with ART, was associated with reduced levels of SIV RNA in plasma and decreased CD4⁺ T cell levels harboring replication-competent virus during ART. At the latest experimental time points, which were up to 8 months after ART interruption, plasma viremia and cell-associated SIV DNA levels remained substantially lower than those before ART initiation in IL-21–treated animals but not in controls. Together, these data suggest that IL-21 supplementation of ART reduces residual inflammation and virus persistence in a relevant model of lentiviral disease and warrants further investigation as a potential intervention for HIV infection.