Background Obesity is a significant public health threat to children in the United States. Aims 1) Determine the prevalence of obesity in a multi-center cohort of children with IBD; 2) Evaluate whether overweight and obese status is associated with patient demographics or disease characteristics. Methods We used data from the ImproveCareNow Collaborative for pediatric IBD, a multi-center registry of children with IBD, collected between April 2007 and December 2009. Children ages 2-18 years were classified into BMI percentiles. Bivariate analyses and multivariate logistic regression were used to compare demographic and disease characteristics by overweight (BMI>85%) and obese (BMI>95%) status. Results The population consisted of 1598 children with IBD. The prevalence of overweight/obese status in pediatric IBD is 23.6%, (20.0% for Crohn's disease (CD) and 30.1% for ulcerative colitis (UC) and indeterminate colitis (IC)). African American race (OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.10-2.48) and Medicaid insurance (OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.19-2.34) were positively associated with overweight/obese status. Prior IBD related surgery (OR 1.73, 95% CI 1.07-2.82) was also associated with overweight and obese status in children with CD. Other disease characteristics were not associated with overweight and obesity in children with IBD. Conclusions Approximately 1/5 of children with CD and 1/3 with UC are overweight or obese. Rates of obesity in UC are comparable to the general population. Obese IBD patients may have a more severe disease course, as indicated by increased need for surgery. Sociodemographic risk factors for obesity in the IBD population are similar to those in the general population.

These improvements suggest that practice sites are learning how to apply quality improvement methods to improve the care of patients.

Tacrolimus is a macrolide agent that is now the primary immunosuppressant used in prevention of graft rejection in transplant recipients. It has been found to be superior to cyclosporine (CSA) for rescue therapy as well as for earlier weaning of steroids. Both tacrolimus and CSA share similar toxicity profiles; however, their gastrointestinal side effects have received little attention. We report three cases of eosinophilic colitis in liver transplant recipients, maintained on tacrolimus as immunosuppressive medication post-liver transplantation. These patients also had high serum immunoglobulin (Ig)E levels, eosinophilia and IgE-positive radioallergosorbent test for milk proteins. The colitis appeared to be mediated by food allergies. Each patient had symptomatic improvement following reduced immunosuppression and an appropriately restricted diet. We conclude that tacrolimus may play a role in the initiation of food allergies, leading to eosinophilic colitis. More studies are needed in a controlled setting to identify the prevalence of similar findings among other pediatric liver transplant recipients.

Objective-There have been no prospective large-scale studies to evaluate the prevalence and determinants of Barrett's esophagus (BE) in children who are free from neurodevelopmental disorders and tracheoesophageal abnormalities. Design-A prospective cross-sectional studySetting-Three pediatric GI Centers in Houston, TX, Phoenix AZ, and Portland ME between February, 2006 and December, 2007. Patients-Children and adolescents consecutively presenting for elective upper endoscopy. Patients with neurodevelopmental and tracheoesophageal disorders were excluded.Interventions-Endoscopic pictures of all cases with suspected BE were independently reviewed and verified by 2 experienced investigators. Esophageal biopsies were obtained in all patients, and targeted biopsies were also obtained from suspected BE. Main Outcome Measurements-Endoscopically suspected BE and histologically confirmed BE.Results-A total of 840 patients (mean age, 9.5 years) were enrolled and had complete questionnaire and endoscopic data. Twelve patients were suspected of having BE (prevalence of 1.43% (95% CI: 0.73-2.45)) and only 1 patient has intestinal metaplasia for a prevalence of 0.12% (95% CI 0-0.65), while the rest had gastric (n=6) or squamous (n=5). Patients with suspected BE had higher mean BMI (23.0 vs. 19.1, p=0.05) and more chest pain (50% vs. 13%, p<0.01) than

Although clusters of pancreatic acinar cells (CPACs) have been reported in gastric mucosa of adults, they have not been described in children. We reviewed 283 pediatric gastric (239 antral and 44 corpus) mucosal biopsies during a 2-year period and detected CPACs in 10 antral biopsy samples. These biopsy samples were stained immunohistochemically for pancreatic exocrine markers (trypsin, chymotrypsin, alpha-amylase, and lipase) and a panel of regulatory substances (insulin, glucagon, somatostatin, pancreatic polypeptide, gastrin, and serotonin). Double immunostaining for colocalization of chromogranins and trypsin as well as mucin and trypsin also were performed on all cases. CPACs were seen in antral mucosa in a background of either normal or minimally inflamed mucosa, without any atrophy or metaplasia, and were positive for all pancreatic exocrine markers. Stray chromogranin-positive cells in the CPACs were also immunopositive for somatostatin, gastrin, or serotonin. All CPACs showed a few hybrid (amphicrine) cells that coexpressed both chromogranin and trypsin. In one case, ultrastructural examination showed such cells to contain both zymogen and neurosecretory granules. Although the presence of CPACs exclusively in the antrum is most likely the result of a sampling bias, the presence of hybrid cells with an amphicrine phenotype suggests that CPACs probably result from an aberration of stem cell differentiation.