All subjects will undergo one ultrasound elastography examination after consent.

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Liver Fibroses

Methotrexate

Ultrasound elastography is a new, noninvasive technique that can assess the stiffness of the liver by the evaluation of how sound waves propagate through the liver parenchyma.

Ultrasound Elastography

Children's Mercy Hospital

Dose Effect Relationship of MTX and IBD

Dose Effect Relationship of Methotrexate and Hepatic Fibrosis in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease

To evaluate the correlation between velocities of shear wave elastography and cumulative dose of Methotrexate (MTX) in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).

To correlate hepatic enzymes elevation and ultrasound elastography velocities.

To assess if changes in shear wave velocity due to Methotrexate are influenced by other risk factors like obesity, alcohol ingestion, smoking

To correlate ultrasound elastography findings with fibrosis markers: AST/ALT ratio (AST (U/L0/ALT (U/L); AST/platelet ratio index (AST/upper limit of normal)/Platelet count (109/L) X 100

Children's Mercy Hospital Kansas City

flecainide x 6 months, then crossover to sotalol x 6 months

sotalol x 6 months, then crossover to flecainide x 6 months

Atrial Fibrillation

flecainide up to 150mg twice daily for the control of atrial fibrillation

Flecainide

sotalol up to 120mg twice daily for the control of atrial fibrillation

Sotalol

Jesse Brown VA Medical Center

Rush University Medical Center

University of Illinois at Chicago

Advocate Christ Medical Center

Pharmacogenetic Study of Antiarrhythmic Drugs for Atrial Fibrillation

A Prospective, Multi-Center, Randomized, Open Label Trial to Determine if a Common Atrial Fibrillation Risk Locus Modulates Differential Response to Antiarrhythmic Drugs

Subjects will be monitored with the Medtronic Reveal LINQ Insertable Cardiac Monitor (ICM) system to assess AF burden. The device will be programmed to optimize the memory for storing AF episode..

Quality of life assessment: Patients will be asked to fill out the AFEQT quality of life questionnaire baseline (study randomization), two, four, six, eight, ten, and 12 months (completion of the study). The questionnaire at the end of the 6rd month will be administered just prior to stopping the first study drug. The validated questionnaire is comprised of 20 questions about AF symptoms with answers given on a Likert scale. The questionnaire will be provided to the patients in paper format either in person or by mail, as applicable. A follow-up phone call will be made to each patient to ensure that the questionnaire is completed and returned.

leukopenia/phosphatase

Dose Effect Relationship of MTX and IBD

Pharmacogenetic Study of Antiarrhythmic Drugs for Atrial Fibrillation

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