Clinical trial NCT04612803: Prevalence of Antihistamine Responsive Irritable Bowel Syndrome With Diarrhea
Official title: Observational Study of the Prevalence of Antihistamine Responsive Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Patients Diagnosed With Irritable Bowel Syndrome With Diarrhea
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Conditions: Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Dermatographism
Post-prandial Diarrhea
Keywords: IBS
irritable bowel syndrome
Dermatographism
post-prandial diarrhea
antihistamine
Lead sponsor: University of Cincinnati
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2020-11-03
Enrollment: 100
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: CASE_ONLY
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: This is a patient population of adults with chronic diarrhea that has been evaluated for the common causes and resulting with a diagnosis of exclusion: irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea.

Brief summary: Irritable bowel syndrome is a functional disorder of the gastrointestinal tract diagnosed with the Rome criteria. The Rome IV criteria are based on abdominal pain symptoms and stool habits including stool frequency and stool forms \[1\]. They define 3 main subtypes based on symptoms: 1) IBS with diarrhea; 2) IBS with constipation: and 3) mixed symptoms of constipation and diarrhea. The IBS with diarrhea (IBS-D) subtype has the highest prevalence. Currently, treatment of IBS-D includes antidiarrheals, bile acid sequestrants, antispasmodics, tricyclic antidepressants, and FODMAP diet. However, many patients are intolerant or unresponsive to the above treatments. Outside of IBS, chronic diarrhea affects about 5% of adults. We have described a syndrome in a subset of IBS patients presenting with post prandial diarrhea, flushing and dermatographia whose symptoms are prevented by pre-treatment with combined H1 and H2 antihistamines \[2\]. However, the prevalence of this syndrome among the IBS + D patients is not known nor have the clinical characteristics or predictors of antihistamine responsive IBS + D been defined.

Detailed description: We have published a series of 5 patients with chronic post prandial diarrhea (PPD) that begins within 3 hours after eating, associated with dermatographia, responsive to antihistamines \[2\]. In these cases, no underlying causes were identified to explain PPD; diagnoses of food allergy, lactose intolerance, celiac disease, dumping syndromes, inflammatory bowel disease, systemic mastocytosis were excluded. Patients with the syndrome have prior histories of chronic urticaria and experience associated transient symptoms of flushing, headache, tachycardia, and abdominal bloating during PPD episodes.

This syndrome, except for our published report, have not been previously described in the medical literature. Patients with systemic mastocytosis and mast cell activation syndrome experience PPD but along with anaphylactic manifestations (e.g. wheezing, hypotension) and measurable mast cell biomarkers are identifiable in affected patients (i.e. serum mast cell tryptase or 24 hour urine methylhistamine, PGF2a). Therefore, it is important to characterize PPD responsive to antihistamines in a general GI patient population and to publish our findings. The impact on human health will be substantial; we found that these patients are undiagnosed and untreated for many years.

Our aim is to recruit 50-100 patients from the UC Health affiliated gastroenterology clinics with access UC health which has 300-500 potential subjects. We would need to recruit 10-20% percentage of these potential subjects. Kris Ramprasad MD, a faculty member in the Division of Gastroenterology, David Bernstein MD, a faculty member in the Division of Allergy and Rheumatology, allergy fellows and GI fellows will direct and implement subject screening and consenting.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Age 18 years and older
* Prior to Diagnosis of IBS + diarrhea based on ICD 10 codes with or without constipation unresponsive to prior treatments
* Moderate to severe symptom severity score (\>175 points) based on IBS symptom severity scale
* Seeking evaluation by a health care professional
* Negative serologic celiac panel
* No response to lactose elimination diet by history
* Normal colonoscopy
* Able to complete symptoms diaries and global evaluations

Exclusion Criteria:

* Confirmed IgE dependent food allergy as a cause of the gastrointestinal symptoms.
* Lactose intolerance by history
* Celiac disease by serology
* Inflammatory bowel disease or colitis
* Bile acid diarrhea by history
* Post-surgical GI symptoms (e.g., dumping syndrome) by history
* No colonoscopy performed
* GI malabsorption
* Current pregnancy
* Current severe depression or history of psychosis
* Current treatment with tricyclic antidepressants

Primary outcomes:
measure: IBS symptomy severity score
timeFrame: 135 days
Secondary outcomes:
measure: IBS quality of life
timeFrame: 135 days
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Cincinnati
name: David Bernstein, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders and the Rome IV process. In: Drossman DA, Chang L, Chey WD, Kellow J, Tack J, Whitehead WE, editors. Rome IV functional gastrointestinal disorders: disorders of gut-brain interaction.
citation: Hassoun Y, Stevenson MR, Bernstein DI. Idiopathic postprandial diarrhea responsive to antihistamines. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2019 Oct;123(4):407-409. doi: 10.1016/j.anai.2019.06.022. Epub 2019 Jul 3. No abstract available.
citation: Mlynek A, Vieira dos Santos R, Ardelean E, Weller K, Magerl M, Church MK, Maurer M. A novel, simple, validated and reproducible instrument for assessing provocation threshold levels in patients with symptomatic dermographism. Clin Exp Dermatol. 2013 Jun;38(4):360-6; quiz 366. doi: 10.1111/ced.12107.
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citation: Passos MC, Lembo AJ, Conboy LA, Kaptchuk TJ, Kelly JM, Quilty MT, Kerr CE, Jacobson EE, Hu R, Friedlander E, Drossman DA. Adequate relief in a treatment trial with IBS patients: a prospective assessment. Am J Gastroenterol. 2009 Apr;104(4):912-9. doi: 10.1038/ajg.2009.13. Epub 2009 Mar 17.
citation: Gordon S, Ameen V, Bagby B, Shahan B, Jhingran P, Carter E. Validation of irritable bowel syndrome Global Improvement Scale: an integrated symptom end point for assessing treatment efficacy. Dig Dis Sci. 2003 Jul;48(7):1317-23. doi: 10.1023/a:1024159226274.
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