Effect of Exclusive Enteral Nutrition on the Disease Process, Nutrition Status, and Gastrointestinal Microbiota for Chinese Children With Crohn's Disease

Background: The aim of this study was to prospectively study the effect of exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) treatment on Chinese pediatric Crohn's disease (CD) patients.

Methods: Thirty-one newly diagnosed CD patients were enrolled in this study and treated with EEN for 8 weeks. Twelve healthy controls (HCs) donated their fecal samples. Statistical methods were used to compare the differences.

Results: According to the Simple Endoscopic Score for CD (SES-CD) at the end of the EEN treatment, 21 patients with SES-CD ≤4 were classified into the remission group (CD-RE), and 10 patients with SES-CD >4 were classified into the nonremission group (CD-NRE). After EEN therapy, there was a significant decrease in the SES-CD, the weighted Pediatric Crohn's Disease Activity Index (wPCDAI), and fecal calprotectin (FCP) in the CD-RE group (all P < .001). The wPCDAI and FCP also decreased in the CD-NRE group (both P < .05). In terms of nutrition improvement, the CD-RE group patients showed more improvement in weight gain, hemoglobin, and serum albumin level than the CD-NRE group patients (all P < .05). For the microbiota, the CD patients had a lower bacterial diversity and different bacterial community compared with HCs. EEN increased overall diversity and was able to shift the dysbiosis in CD patients toward a healthier state. Absence of improvement in wPCDAI and Shannon index at 2 weeks predicts poor response at the end of EEN.

Conclusion: EEN can be used in most Chinese pediatric CD patients to induce remission and improve nutrition.

Keywords: exclusive enteral nutrition; Chinese; microbiome; pediatrics.