You Sun Kim

OBJECTIVES: It is difficult to diagnose intestinal Behçet's disease (BD) due to various extraintestinal manifestations emerging at different time points in the disease course and a lack of reliable diagnostic criteria. We conducted this study to develop and validate novel diagnostic criteria for intestinal BD. METHODS: Experts from three universities generated the preliminary diagnostic criteria for intestinal BD, and a consensus was reached using a modified Delphi method with 13 gastroenterolog

Several studies have reported a significant rate of missed colorectal polyps during colonoscopy. This study aimed to determine the variables that affect the miss rate of colorectal polyps.We performed a retrospective observational study of patients who, between January 2007 and December 2014, had undergone a second colonoscopy within 6 months of their first. In all patients, the first colonoscopy constituted a screening or surveillance colonoscopy as part of a health check-up, and the patients w

Cytomegalovirus infections are frequently observed in patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis, especially steroid-refractory ulcerative colitis. Ganciclovir was effective in patients with steroid-refractory ulcerative colitis who had a cytomegalovirus infection.

Chronic inflammatory airway diseases including asthma are characterized by immune dysfunction to inhaled allergens. Our previous studies demonstrated that T cell priming to inhaled allergens requires LPS, which is ubiquitously present in household dust allergens. In this study, we evaluated the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the development of T cell priming and its polarization to Th1 or Th17 cells when exposed to LPS-contaminated allergens. An asthma mouse model was induc

OBJECTIVE: Genome wide association studies (GWAS) and meta-analyses for Crohn's disease (CD) have not fully explained the heritability of CD, suggesting that additional loci are yet to be found and that the known loci may contain high effect rare risk variants that have thus far gone undetected by GWAS. While the cost of deep sequencing remains too high to analyse many samples, targeted sequencing of pooled DNA samples allows the efficient and cost effective capture of all variations in a target

The close relationship between primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) provides a good opportunity to comprehend the gut-liver axis. The gut and the liver have reciprocal interactions, including how gut inflammation influences the liver through immune cells and the microbiota and how the microbiota in the gut modifies bile acids, which are produced and secreted from the liver. PSC-IBD shows distinct clinical findings from classical IBD. In addition, a distinct g

The patients who had CMV-reactivated UC showed poor outcomes at the long-term follow-up, and the long-term efficacy of ganciclovir therapy was marginal. Careful assessment is necessary for patients who exhibit evidence of CMV reactivation.

In conclusion, our results show that injected MSCs were observed at 1 and 4 hours post injection and more MSCs remain in lungs with emphysema.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a still prevalent and important disease entity in Korea. TB can involve any part of the gastrointestinal tract, and intestinal TB is an important disease of extra-pulmonary TB. The diagnosis of intestinal TB remains a challenge because the signs and symptoms are nonspecific. It should be differentiated from the inflammatory bowel diseases and malignancies, especially Crohn's disease. The diagnosis of intestinal TB should be based on careful clinical evaluation, such as extra

The BBPS is a valid and reliable measure for assessing bowel preparation during colonoscopy in Korean patients. The polyp detection rate is higher in patients with higher BBPS scores than in those with lower BBPS scores during a colonoscopic procedure.

The immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effects of thalidomide are associated with inhibition of TNF-alpha levels. However, the mechanism by which thalidomide reduces TNF-alpha production remains elusive. NF-kappaB is known to play a central role in regulating inflammatory responses in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We tested whether thalidomide acts through inhibiting NF-kappaB activity. HT-29 cells were stimulated with LPS (1 microg/ml) alone, or after pretreatment with tha

The immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effects of thalidomide are associated with inhibition of TNF-α levels. However, the mechanism by which thalidomide reduces TNF-α production remains elusive. NF-κB is known to play a central role in regulating inflammatory responses in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We tested whether thalidomide acts through inhibiting NF-κB activity. HT-29 cells were stimulated with LPS (1 μg/ml) alone, or after pretreatment with thalidomide (100 μg/ml)