Results: Forty-nine children were

included, 33 identified as C. concisus positive at diagnosis and 16 were C. concisus negative. At diagnosis, there was no significant difference in any of the measures except for BMI z this website score which was significantly lower (p < 0.01) in the C. concisus positive children. PCDAI, Modified PCDAI, iron levels and CRP were monitored over time between the groups. Mean CRP levels were higher in the C. concisus negative group overtime. There was no difference in time to first relapse, treatments or growth outcomes over time between the two groups Conclusion: C. concisus does not appear to contribute to a more severe disease once diagnosis and treatment had commenced, however C. concisus may contribute to growth retardation prior to diagnosis. J CHAN,1 R FOSTER,2 ST LEACH,1 AS DAY,3 DA LEMBERG2 1School of Women's and children's Health, UNSW Medicine Sydney Australia, 2Department of Gastroenterology Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick, Sydney Australia, 3Paediatrics, HM781-36B cell line University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand Introduction: Tacrolimus

is an immunosuppressant that can induce remission in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) which is refractory to other treatments. However, tacrolimus use in pediatric IBD has not been extensively studied.

Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of tacrolimus in pediatric IBD patients. Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed on pediatric IBD patients attending Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick from 1999 to 2010 who were prescribed tacrolimus for treatment of their disease. Results: Thirteen patients were included. Tacrolimus induced remission in 9 (69%) patients with a mean time to remission of 2 months (range 1 to 3 months) from commencement of treatment and a median duration of remission of 14 months. There was a mean reduction of 23.8 in PCDAI scores following tacrolimus treatment. Four of the 9 patients who achieved remission, experienced a relapse within 6 months Tolmetin following cessation of tacrolimus and 3 patients required colectomy. Seven patients experienced adverse events including low magnesium, headaches and raised creatinine. Conclusion: Tacrolimus can be a useful agent for the induction of remission in pediatric IBD patients with refractory disease and the associated side effects were generally mild. However, given the proportion of patients who experienced relapses upon cessation of tacrolimus, care should be taken when transitioning patients to alternate maintenance therapy.