• P B Jeppesen, M Pertkiewicz, A Forbes, L Pironi, S M Gabe, F Joly, B Messing, S Loth, N N Youssef, H Heinze, and P Berghöfer.
• Department of Medical Gastroenterology, CA-2121 Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: Bekker@dadlnet.dk.
• Clin Nutr. 2013 Oct 1; 32 (5): 713-21.

Background & AimsShort bowel syndrome (SBS)-intestinal failure (IF) patients have impaired quality of life (QoL) and suffer from the burden of malabsorption and parenteral support (PS). A phase III study demonstrated that treatment with teduglutide, a glucagon-like peptide 2 analogue, reduces PS volumes by 32% while maintaining oral fluid intake constant; placebo-treated patients had reduced PS by 21%, but oral fluid intake increased accordingly. As effects of teduglutide on QoL are unknown, they were investigated here.MethodsQoL analyses from a double-blind, randomised Phase III study in 86 SBS-IF patients receiving teduglutide (0.05 mg/kg/day s.c.) or placebo over 24 weeks. At baseline and every 4 weeks, QoL was assessed using the validated SBS-QoL™ scale.ResultsPS reductions were associated with QoL improvements (ANCOVA, p = 0.0194, SBS-QoL per-protocol). Compared to baseline, teduglutide significantly improved the SBS-QoL™ total score and the score of 9 of 17 items at week 24. These changes were not significant compared to placebo. Teduglutide-treated patients with remaining small intestine >100 cm experienced more gastrointestinal adverse events (GI-AE), unfavourably affecting QoL.ConclusionsOverall, PS volume reductions were associated with improvements in SBS-QoL™ scores. The short observation period, imbalances in oral fluid intake in relation to PS reductions, large patient and effect heterogeneity and occurrence of GI-AE in a subgroup of teduglutide-treated patients may account for the inability to show statistically significant effects of teduglutide on SBS-QoL™ scores compared to placebo.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved.

49 keywords...

hide…