Thread by @theliverdr

1/6
2022 is coming to an end, glad to share 15th publication from our department for the year

Severe alcohol hepatitis has no approved treatment
Recommended treatment is steroids

Some patients dont respond to steroids
They are offered other options...
#livertwitter #medtwitter

2/6
...such as Pentoxifylline.

But even Pentoxifylline therapy does not improve survival in patients with severe alcohol hepatitis

In this study, we looked at how intestinal bacteria affect patients on Pentoxifylline therapy

and

compared them with a group on stool transplant

3/6
Very interestingly, we found that more dangerous groups of bacteria increased in patients on Pentoxifylline therapy

while those receiving healthy donor stool transplant developed good bacteria that reduced liver disease

Central influencer bacteria after Pentoxifylline..

4/6
..remained pathogenic (disease producing), while after stool transplant, the main influencer bacterial groups changed towards the good 'gut-health' promoting species

Bad guys: Bacillus, Eggerthella, Aerococcaceae
Good guys: Bifidobacterium, Bacteroides, Citrobacter

5/6
Study doesn't conclusively show cause-effect relationships & a prospective trial is needed - but bacterial changes were striking and methodology was strong for us to have a good idea about treatment related bacteria changes in intestine.

Full paper: academic.oup.com/gastro/article…

6/6
In case you missed a very cool and simple to understand report on how stool transplants are being investigated for treatment of liver diseases, please check out from @ThePrintIndia featuring our previous works
theprint.in/health/poop-ha…