A severe diagnosis of intestinal disease, confirmed by studies in Gran Canaria | Green Homer

Moreover, according to a report from the Spanish Working Group on Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis (Geteccu), there are more than 300,000 cases in Spain, of which between 85,000 and 150,000 are patients with ulcerative colitis, and it is estimated that about 25% of people The inflammatory process begins before the age of 20.

This disease affects everyday aspects such as traveling on public transport, socializing with friends or attending work meetings, as its most prominent symptom is urinary incontinence when going to the toilet.

Ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory bowel disease that, in addition to a constant urge to urinate, can cause fatigue, abdominal pain, or increased levels of depression and anxiety.

Lilly Spain Medical Director José Antonio Sacristan announced a new treatment for this specific pathology, available in Spain and included in government funding from the Ministry of Health, which will help improve the quality of life of adult patients with ulcerative colitis. . Moderate to severe cases that do not respond or have lost response to standard treatment.

In an interview, he emphasized that the impact on their functionality is “huge” as it affects their social, family and relationship relationships: “At the end of the day, these are patients who often stay at home due to fear of the urge to defecate. “.

In this sense, Ignacio Marin-Jiménez, a gastroenterologist at the Gregorio Marañon Hospital in Madrid, added that with current treatments, the symptoms of one hundred percent of patients cannot be controlled, since “there is an important percentage, about 30%, that, despite a significant variety of treatments, do not achieve remission” .

In studies using the new drug, 49.9% of patients with ulcerative colitis achieved clinical remission (no long-term symptoms) and endoscopic remission (no colon inflammation) after 52 weeks, and 43.3% of patients also achieved histological remission . endoscopic remission (without active inflammation of tissues and colon).

These clinical trials, which took place at Spanish centers in Madrid, Santander or Gran Canaria, included patients who had never received treatment, along with other patients who had lost response or had not tolerated previous ones.

For her part, gastroenterologist Marilo Martin from the University Hospital de la Paz in Madrid explained that symptom control was achieved in 70% of patients and that other symptoms “important” for them, such as pain, improved.

Thus, the medical director of Lilly Spain – the company that collaborated with EFE in distributing this content – also emphasized that another achievement of the new treatment is the creation of a scale that measures the urgency of defecation.

Until now, Sacristan explains, this symptom has been measured in consultations qualitatively or binarily, that is, whether urgency existed or not, and his proposal uses a numerical scale from 1 to 10 that allows us to better separate the influence of this factor. symptom in patients.