Earlier Anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor Therapy of Crohn's Disease Correlates with Slower Progression of Bowel Damage.

Crohn's disease (CD) follows a relapsing and remitting course incurring cumulative bowel damage over time. The question of whether or not the timing of the initiating biologic therapy affects long-term disease progression remains unanswered. Herein, we calculated rates of change in the Lémann index-which quantifies accumulated bowel damage-as a function of the time between the disease onset and initiation of biologic therapy. We aimed to explore the impact of the earlier introduction of biologics on the rate of progression of long-term cumulative bowel damage. Medical records of CD patients treated during 2009-2014 at The Mount Sinai Hospital were queried. Inclusion criteria were two comprehensive assessments allowing calculation of the index at t A total of 88 patients were studied: 58 Bio-pre-t Earlier introduction of biologics tended to correlate with the slower progression of bowel damage in CD, reflected by the reduced rate of Lémann index progression.