Publication

Colesevelam for the treatment of bile acid malabsorption-associated diarrhea in patients with Crohn's disease: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study

Journal Paper/Review - Jun 19, 2014

Units
PubMed
Doi

Citation
Beigel F, Brand S, Göke B, Rust C, Breiteneicher S, Maul J, Lammert F, Howaldt S, Teich N, Ochsenkühn T. Colesevelam for the treatment of bile acid malabsorption-associated diarrhea in patients with Crohn's disease: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. J Crohns Colitis 2014; 8:1471-9.
Type
Journal Paper/Review (English)
Journal
J Crohns Colitis 2014; 8
Publication Date
Jun 19, 2014
Issn Electronic
1876-4479
Pages
1471-9
Brief description/objective

BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Bile acid malabsorption (BAM)-associated diarrhea is an important clinical issue in patients with Crohn's disease (CD). We analyzed the efficacy and safety of the bile acid sequestrant colesevelam for treatment of BAM-associated diarrhea in CD patients in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

METHODS
The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients with >30% reduction of liquid stools/day from baseline to termination visit at week 4. Secondary endpoints were reduction of the number of liquid stools/day, improvement of stool consistency and quality of life.

RESULTS
26 patients were analyzed in the intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis. The primary endpoint was reached by 10 patients (69.7%) in the colesevelam group compared to 3 patients (27.3%) in the placebo group (risk difference RD=.394, 95%CI:[-0.012; 0.706]; P=.0566). In the per-protocol analysis (n=22), the risk difference was statistically significant (RD=.470, 95%CI:[0.018; 0.788], P(H0: RD=0)=0.0364; 95% CI:[1.3;54.7]). Regarding secondary endpoints, in the ITT population colesevelam-treated patients had a significant reduction of liquid stools/day at week 4 (median 5.0 to 2.0; P=0.01), while patients treated with placebo had no significant reduction (median 4.0 to 3.0; P=0.42). Significantly more patients in the colesevelam group had improvement of stool consistency of at least one level in the Bristol stool chart, as compared to the placebo group (P=0.003).

CONCLUSIONS
We found significant differences in favor for colesevelam treatment compared to placebo treatment for CD patients with BAM regarding the reduction of the number of liquid stools/day and stool consistency. ClinicalTrials.gov number: NCT01203254.