Pediatric noncoeliac gluten sensitivity

Functional gastrointestinal disorders remain a rather obscure and vague chapter of medicine, clouded with discordant, or even completely contradictory findings and opinions, depending on the different researchers and studies. The two main etiological hypotheses are an alteration of the brain-gut axis with visceral hypersensitivity, or a microscopic inflammation of the gastro-intestinal mucosa. However, what appears to link these and other hypotheses is the evidence that the symptoms reported by patients, both in adults and in the pediatric age, are very often presented in association with the intake of specific foods. To further complicate this heterogeneous situation, several authors have …

Frequency Of Self-Reported Non-Celiac Wheat Sensitivity In School-Age Adolescents In Italy Epidemiological And Clinical Data.

Non-Celiac Wheat Sensitivity (NCWS) has recently been included among the gluten-related disorders. As no biomarkers of this disease exist, its frequency has been estimated based on self-reported symptoms, but to date no data are available about self-reported NCWS in teenagers. AIM: To explore the prevalence of self-reported NCWS in a group of high school students and to study their demographic and clinical characteristics. METHODS: The study was performed between April 2015 and January 2016 in two high schools of a coastal town in the south of Sicily (Italy).

Evaluation of tolerability of “ancient” grains in patients with NCGS.

The sicilian network of biological therapy in inflammatory bowel disease: preliminary data from a prospective study on efficacy and safety

Background and aim: The monitoring of appropriateness and costs of biological therapy in Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a relevant need. We aimed to evaluate appropriateness, efficacy and safety of biological therapy in IBD in Sicily through a web based network of prescribing centers. Material and methods: The Sicilian network for the monitoring of biological therapy in IBD is composed by a super Hub coordinator center and five Hub plus ten Spoke centers. From January 2013 all IBD patients starting a biological agent (incident cases) or already on treatment (prevalent cases) were entered in a web based software. Herein we report data on remission and response after twelve weeks of biol…

Gluten Intolerance and Sensitivityin the Elderly.

Celiac disease (CD) is a chronic, immune-mediated enteropathy in genetically predisposed individuals caused by the ingestion of gluten-containing cereals. CD is further characterized by variable clinical presentation, specific serum autoantibody response and a variable degree of damage in the small intestinal mucosa. HLA molecules DQ2 (90%–95%) and DQ8 (5%–10%) are associated with CD, and in the continued presence of gluten the disease is self-perpetuating. Regarding clinical presentation, CD patients may complain of not only gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, but also extraintestinal symptoms, and most importantly they may often be asymptomatic (“silent” CD). In recent years, several reports …

The Sicilian network of biological therapy in inflammatory bowel disease: preliminary data on efficacy .

Background: The monitoring of appropriateness, costs, and clinical outcomes of biological therapy in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a relevant need. We aimed to evaluate all these issues in Sicily through a web based network of all prescribing centers. Methods: From January 2013, all IBD patients starting a biological agent (incident cases) or already on treatment (prevalent cases) were entered in a web based software. Herein we report data of incident cases about the efficacy of biological therapy after twelve weeks and one year of treatment. Results: From January 2013 to October 2016, 1475 patients were included. Incident cases were 1090. Considering that 16% of patients experienced …

Main intrinsic factors driving land grabbing in the African countries’ agro-food industry

Land grabbing is a phenomenon that has spread widely over the last two decades and which involves rich and emerging countries and international companies as protagonists in the large-scale acquisition of land in developing countries. Through the development of an econometric model that takes into account the annual size of land grabbing in the African countries, the research aims to understand the main intrinsic factors, linked to the hosting countries, that guide the large-scale acquisition of land by foreign investors. Results show that the presence of a high debt towards foreign organisations, the high availability of virgin lands, the strong vocation of the hosting country for the culti…

Effect of The Gluten-Free Diet on Quality of Life, Gastrointestinal Symptoms and Immune System in Patients with Fibromyalgia and Non-Celiac Wheat Sensitivity. Fibromyalgia and Non-Celiac Wheat Sensitivity.

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a clinical syndrome characterized by chronic pain. FM patients complain hyperalgesia and allodynia and they are frequently affected by Non Celiac Wheat Sensitivity (NCWS), a condition where gastrointestinal and extraintestinal symptoms are triggered by gluten and/or wheat ingestion. The gluten-free diet (GFD) impact was evaluated on fibromyalgia-related and gastrointestinal symptoms, health-related quality of life and immune response of patients with both FM and NCWS in order to detect a possible pathogenetic role of wheat/gluten in the triggering of the inflammatory process. Peripheral blood from 8 FM patients, 10 FM and NCWS patients (FM+NCWS patients), 13 NCWS patien…