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World J Gastroenterol. Jan 21, 2017; 23(3): 414-425
Published online Jan 21, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i3.414
Clinical impact of immunomonitoring in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease
Donal Tighe, Deirdre McNamara
Donal Tighe, Deirdre McNamara, Department of Gastroenterology, Adelaide and Meath Incorporating the National Children's Hospital Tallaght, School of Clinical Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Academic Gastroenterology Group, Dublin 24, Ireland
Author contributions: Tighe D conducted the review; and McNamara D provided insight and supervised the review.
Supported by European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest. No financial support.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Donal Tighe, Department of Gastroenterology, Adelaide and Meath Incorporating the National Children's Hospital Tallaght, School of Clinical Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Academic Gastroenterology Group, AMNCH Tallaght, Tallaght, Dublin 24, Ireland. tighedo@tcd.ie
Telephone: +353-18963844 Fax: +1-310-2678772
Received: March 8, 2016
Peer-review started: March 9, 2016
First decision: April 14, 2016
Revised: April 29, 2016
Accepted: June 2, 2016
Article in press: June 2, 2016
Published online: January 21, 2017
Processing time: 311 Days and 15.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Immunomonitoring is being increasingly used to optimise response rates in inflammatory bowel disease. The aim of this review article is to explore the available literature, and to understand the rationale for using immunomonitoring and to see how this approach can be best incorporated into inflammatory bowel disease treatment algorithms. The focus of this review article is the role for immunomonitoring at the key points of induction, and at loss of response. It will emphasise the possible advantages of immunomonitoring. It will define optimal trough levels, plus targets required to achieve mucosal healing, and help alter the natural history of the disease.