Abatacept study update

Many of you may remember that I was prescreened several weeks ago to enter a UC study for Abatacept and tested positive for C difficile. As a result I had to take a 10 day coarse of antibiotics to get rid if it before I could enter the study.   Yesterday I had a second prescreening visit. My last stool sample a week ago tested negative and I’m now free of C difficile. It has reduced the number of BMs I have from 5 to 12 each day to only 5 for the last 9 days straight. That seems very strange. I have been tracking my BMs for over a year now and plotting the number each day on a graph. The graph shows my BMs up and down like the stock market with no more than 3 days in a row with the same number. The last 9 days straight have been 5 each day but I still have extreme urgency and blood. The graph looks like a flat line.   I was worried I may not be severe enough to enter the study but the study coordinator assured me it is enough. She took blood, urine and stool samples to be sent away again. All lab work for this study at all study centers across North America are to be done at the same lab. My last stool sample was sent to a local lab just to verify I’m clear of C difficile before the second prescreening. I’m now waiting for the study coordinator to arrange for a flexible sig. As long as the sig shows enough inflammation and my symptom log shows enough symptoms for a one week period I will qualify for the study.

Hey Paul...great news that the c.difficile has cleared up. What antibiotic did they put you on for it?

Did they check you for it when you had the other trials and before Remicade?

It's good that you're still accepted for the next screening process.

quincy

Quincy, I was on Vancocin for 10 days. I was checked for C difficile 4 times during the last study. The last time was at the end of the study and a few weeks before I started Remicade in August of 2006. My GI believes I got it after a round of antibiotics last June for a sore throat.

Eric, Abatacept is similar to Remicade in that they are both biologics and administer by infusion but they are different in the way they work on the immune system. Remicade is a TNF blocker and Abatacept works on the T-Cells.