Crohns Disease

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Crohns Disease

• By Ashley Wyche

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What is Crohns Disease

• Chronic inflammatory bowel disease that causes
  swelling of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
• Your bodys immune system starts to attack
  healthy cells in your GI tract
• Inflammation
• Mostly found in the ileum of the small
  intestines.
• Can happen anywhere in the GI tract
• Mouth to Anus
• Classified as an autoimmune disorder
• Body is producing antibodies against itself
• 500,000 people in United States affected

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Causes

• Something in your body causes your immune system
  to overreact.
• Researchers believe
• Inherited genes
• The immune system
• Environmental factors
• Flare ups can come from food, cigarettes, or
  stress.
• No one has discovered an actual cause

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Who is at risk?

• Usually teens and people in their twenties
• All genders
• African Americans, Caucasians, and Jews of
  European descent
• People who have family members with Crohns
  disease.

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Symptoms

• Loss of appetite
• Vomiting
• Fatigue
• Abscesses
• Fistulas
• Intestinal obstruction

• Persistent diarrhea
• Abdominal cramps and pain
• Fever
• Rectal Bleeding
• Dramatic weight loss

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Diagnosis

• Very difficult
• Gastroenterologist conducts a series of test
• Blood Tests
• Stool Examinations
• Barium X-ray
• CT scan
• Endoscopic Tests

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Treatment

• Aminosalicylates (5-ASAs)
• Corticosteroids
• Immunosuppressants (Remicade)
• Antibiotics
• Surgery

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Remicade(Infliximab)

• Immunosuppressant
• Relieves symptoms
• Induce and maintain remission
• First used in 1999 to treat fistulas
• Stop the use of steroids
• Not a cure
• For patients with moderate to severe Crohns

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Mechanism of Remicade

• Binds and Blocks the effects of TNF-alpha
• Monoclonal antibody
• Tumor necrosis factor
• A protein involved in the inflammation process

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Administration of Remicade

• IV Infusion
• 3 hour treatment
• Dosage calculated upon weight
• Every 6 to 12 weeks year round
• Have to take for life

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Side effects of Remicade

• Can lower your ability to fight off infection
• Serious infections
• Lymphoma
• Reactivation of Hepatitis B virus
• Blood disorders
• Allergic reactions
• Death

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Affects on the patient physically

• Weak
• Cant Stand
• Become skinny
• Effects on the patient in life
• Cant go to school and kept back
• Cant work

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Further research-In Paper

• Mixture of Remicade
• Drug cost
• What makes the immune system overreact

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The End

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