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“Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic idiopathic inflammatory disorder of the

learn more gastrointestinal tract which includes Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Both pathologies are characterized by intermittent presence of symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, blood in the stool, and systemic symptoms.1 The incidence of IBD is usually higher in subjects between 15 and 30 years of age.2 According to a Portuguese study by Azevedo and co-workers, the incidence of Crohn’s disease was particularly higher in the age stratum between 17 and 39 years and the prevalence of IBD in Portugal in 2007 was 146 patients per 100,000 subjects, showing an increasing trend between 2003 (when it was 86 patients per 100,000 individuals) and 2007.3 Moreover, the incidence of IBD is considered to be variable in different regions and for different groups of population, and has increased in recent years.3 and 4 Several studies report that incidence is estimated to be around 5–7 per 100,000 subjects/year for Crohn’s disease in the northern hemisphere countries, such as the United States of America and northern European countries and about selleck 0.1–4 per 100,000 subjects/year in southern countries.3 and 4 In Portugal, according to a study by Shivananda et al., between 1991 and 1993, the estimated incidence of Crohn’s disease

was 2.4 per 100,000 subjects and for Ulcerative colitis it was 2.9 per 100,000.4 The treatment of IBD has focussed on the management of symptoms and, in recent years, has become more resolute on changing the course of the disease and its complications in the long-term. In fact, the probability of developing complications requiring hospitalization and surgery is high and recurrence after surgery is also common.5, 6 and 7 Therefore, in order to minimize the development of these complications and to improve outcomes for these patients, it is important to develop other strategies to manage IBD Reverse transcriptase and to optimize current clinical practice. With the main objectives of discussing ways to improve disease control in IBD, to outline key clinical data and experience leading to optimization of corticosteroid and immunosuppressive use in Crohn’s disease and

to debate the best practice in topics of current interest in Crohn’s disease, several National Meetings were held in different countries. This article reports the main consensus statements reached in the Portuguese National Meeting. Between July and August 2009, 26 key unanswered practical questions on the use of conventional therapy in Crohn’s disease were identified through market research. During the following months (September and October), 1400 participants from almost 30 countries evaluated those questions through a web-based ranking, giving a higher score for those considered to be the most important. Based on the ranking results, the International Steering Committee selected the top 10 questions to be debated and analysed in several National Meetings of different countries.