VIDEO: Do pathogenic intestinal bacteria drive scleroderma GI symptoms?

ROME – Patients with systemic sclerosis who have a range of gastointestinal symptoms and severity have higher amounts of pathogenic bacteria than do normal healthy control patients, according to Dr. Elizabeth Volkmann and her colleagues.

They examined the bacterial populations found in the cecal and sigmoid portion of the colon in 17 patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and found a large increase in bacteria known to perpetuate inflammation in other autoimmune diseases, particularly inflammatory bowel disease, as well as a decrease in healthy commensal bacteria that are thought to decrease inflammation. The levels of both commensal and pathogenic bacteria also correlated with the severity of symptoms that patients described, said Dr. Volkmann, a rheumatologist and clinical instructor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, two species normally found at lower levels in chronic inflammatory conditions, were increased in SSc. “This was a rather unique feature of systemic sclerosis,” she said in an interview at the European Congress of Rheumatology.

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ROME – Patients with systemic sclerosis who have a range of gastointestinal symptoms and severity have higher amounts of pathogenic bacteria than do normal healthy control patients, according to Dr. Elizabeth Volkmann and her colleagues.

They examined the bacterial populations found in the cecal and sigmoid portion of the colon in 17 patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and found a large increase in bacteria known to perpetuate inflammation in other autoimmune diseases, particularly inflammatory bowel disease, as well as a decrease in healthy commensal bacteria that are thought to decrease inflammation. The levels of both commensal and pathogenic bacteria also correlated with the severity of symptoms that patients described, said Dr. Volkmann, a rheumatologist and clinical instructor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, two species normally found at lower levels in chronic inflammatory conditions, were increased in SSc. “This was a rather unique feature of systemic sclerosis,” she said in an interview at the European Congress of Rheumatology.

[email protected]

ROME – Patients with systemic sclerosis who have a range of gastointestinal symptoms and severity have higher amounts of pathogenic bacteria than do normal healthy control patients, according to Dr. Elizabeth Volkmann and her colleagues.

They examined the bacterial populations found in the cecal and sigmoid portion of the colon in 17 patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and found a large increase in bacteria known to perpetuate inflammation in other autoimmune diseases, particularly inflammatory bowel disease, as well as a decrease in healthy commensal bacteria that are thought to decrease inflammation. The levels of both commensal and pathogenic bacteria also correlated with the severity of symptoms that patients described, said Dr. Volkmann, a rheumatologist and clinical instructor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, two species normally found at lower levels in chronic inflammatory conditions, were increased in SSc. “This was a rather unique feature of systemic sclerosis,” she said in an interview at the European Congress of Rheumatology.

[email protected]