Accepted Manuscript © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Crohn's & Colitis Foundation. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com Exploratory study of the effectiveness of granulocyte and monocyte adsorptive apheresis before initiation of steroids in patients with active ulcerative colitis (EXPECT study): A multicenter prospective clinical trial Kazuki Kakimoto,MD, PhD, * Minoru Matsuura, MD, PhD, † Takumi Fukuchi,MD, ‡ Hitoshi Hongo, MD, PhD, § Tsuguhiro Kimura, MD, PhD, § Nobuo Aoyama, MD, PhD, ¶ Yorihide Okuda, MD, PhD, ‖ Kazuki Aomatsu, MD, PhD, ** Noriko Kamata, MD, PhD, †† Yoko Yokoyama, MD, PhD, ‡‡ Chiemi Mizuno, MD, §§ Takuya Inoue, MD, PhD, * Takako Miyazaki, MD, PhD, * Shiro Nakamura, MD, PhD, * Kazuhide Higuchi, MD, PhD, * Hiroshi Nakase, MD, PhD, ¶¶ * 2nd Department of Internal Medicine, Osaka Medical College: 2-7 Daigakumachi Takatsuki, Osaka, 569-8686 Japan † Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Kyorin University School of Medicine: 6- 20-2 Shinkawa Mitaka, Tokyo, 181-8611 Japan ‡ Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Iseikai Hospital, 6-2-25 Sugahara Higashiyodogawa-ku Osaka, Osaka, 533-0022 Japan § Fujita Gastroenterological Hospital, 17-36 Matsubaracho Takatsuki, Osaka, 569-0086 Japan ¶ Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and IBD Center, Aoyama Medical Clinic, 3-3-19 Tamondori Chuo-ku Kobe, Hyogo, 650-0015 Japan ‖ Department of Gastroenterology, Otemae Hospital, 1-5-34 Otemae, Chuo-ku, Osaka, Osaka, 540-0008 Japan Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/crohnscolitis360/advance-article/doi/10.1093/crocol/otaa073/5910166 by guest on 28 September 2020