Tu1331 Visible Light Spectroscopy in Diagnosis of Chronic Gastrointestinal Ischemia: Results of a Cohort Study

of high voltage and low pulse duration which vary both in frequency and duration.FREMS enhances microvascular blood flow and modulates the expression of angiogenic growth factors and cytokines.Aim: to investigate the effects of FREMS in an experimental model of acute inflammatory colitis.Material and methods: We used an established model of TNBSinduced colitis in guinea pigs.Colitis was induced by transanal administration of TNBS (15 mg/250 g of body weight in 30% ethanol) in 14 animals.An additional group of guinea pigs (n=3) did not receive TNBS and was used as normal control.Successful induction of colitis was confirmed in all cases by positive fecal occult blood tests.One week after the induction of colitis, animals were randomized to the FREMS therapy group (n=7) or the control group (n=7).After 3 weeks, animals were sacrificed and colons were harvested and used for analysis.Results: Treatment with FREMS significantly decreased the severity of TNBS-induced colonic damages, as assessed both macroscopically and histologically by using established scoring systems that account for mucosal ulceration and atrophy, edema of the submucosa, inflammatory cell infiltration, and vascular dilatation.The macroscopic score of colonic damage was 2.1 in the FREMS group and 7.5 in the control group (P<0.01).The histological score of colonic damage was 2.1 in the FREMS group and 6.6 in the control group (P<0.01).FREMS therapy normalizes colonic vascularization and significantly increases the number of regenerating nerve fibers, as assessed by GAP43 immunostaining (P<0.001).Finally, the expression of TNF-alpha in the colon of animals treated with FREMS was more than 3 times lower than in the control group (4.1 vs. 14.8 pg/ml, P<0.0001).Conclusions: FREMS has significant beneficial effects in an experimental model of acute inflammatory colitis and merits further investigation as novel therapeutic strategy in inflammatory bowel diseases.