To determine whether blood nitrite levels are elevated in patients with leptospirosis. Male patients fulfilling clinical and epidemiological criteria for a diagnosis of leptospirosis were recruited. Those with MAT titre of ≤400 together with those seroconverting to a titer of ≤200 were included in the analysis. Serum nitrite levels were ...

Previous studies revealed that transient hyperammonemia was noted after generalized convulsion. This study was undertaken to analyze the association between postictal state and serum ammonia levels. Adult patients presenting to the emergency department with seizures were included. Serum ammonia and other blood tests were compared between patients with full recovery ...

BACKGROUND: Despite the rich literature on GERD, its cause and reason for increased prevalence remain obscure. Currently accepted mechanisms leave many questions unanswered. Nitrite chemistry at the GEJ is well described for carcinogenesis. Recent epidemiological and animal data have linked nitrates to GERD. "Nitrate reductase" of oral bacteria converts nitrates ...

BACKGROUND: Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a serious neuropsychiatric complication in both acute and chronic liver disease. AIMS: To establish the utility of a portable noninvasive method to measure ammonia in the breath of healthy subjects and patients with HE. METHODS: The study included 106 subjects: 44 women and 62 men, ...

BACKGROUND/GOALS: Esophageal varices (EV) in early histological stages of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) have been recognized but not well defined. We sought to determine the prevalence, clinical characteristics, and predictors of EV in early-stage PBC, as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of recent guidelines regarding EV screening in PBC ...

This study aimed to determine plasma and neutrophil oxidase activities that may contribute to vascular inflammation in Behçet's disease (BD) patients. Cyclooxygenase (COX), NADPH oxidase and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity was determined in neutrophils isolated from BD patients and healthy controls. Functional assay of NADPH oxidase was significantly increased in BD ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: : The aim of the study was to evaluate the incidence of peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) in a prospectively recorded series of colon cancer patients from a defined cohort and to compare clinicopathological characteristics, survival, and TP53 mutation status in primary tumors from patients with and without PC. ...

AIMS: Intestinal tuberculosis is not uncommon in developing countries. The diagnosis of this disease is quite difficult. The purpose of our research was to recall the clinical, colonoscopic, and histopathological features of this disease. METHODS: The clinical, colonoscopic, and histopathological findings were retrospectively analyzed in 34 patients with intestinal colonic ...

Introduction: Several studies have suggested an increased prevalence of benign and malignant tumors in acromegaly, particularly colonic neoplasms. The gallbladder's epithelial similarity to the colon raises the possibility that gallbladder polyps (GBP) may occur more frequently in acromegaly. Patients and Methods: Thirty-one patients with newly diagnosed acromegaly (14 females, 17 ...

Background  There has been little research on extramammary Paget's disease (EMPD) conducted in Asia. Methods  The aim of this multicenter study was to investigate the clinicopathological features, biological behavior, and treatment of EMPD in 194 Korean patients over a five-year period. Results  As expected, this disease exhibited a male dominance ...

The purpose of our study was to compare the effect of three different full-laxative bowel preparations on patient compliance, residual stool and fluid, reader confidence, and polyp detection at CT colonography (CTC). A total of 2531 patients underwent CTC followed by colonoscopy for the American College of Radiology Imaging Network ...

BACKGROUND: In this study we investigated gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding and its relationship to arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) in patients with the continuous-flow HeartMate II (HMII) left ventricular assist device (LVAD). METHODS: The records of 172 patients who received HMII support between November 2003 and June 2010 were reviewed. Patients were considered ...

OBJECTIVES: To establish the baseline preoperative prevalence of Oxalobacter formigenes (OF) colonization in a cohort of obese patients scheduled for Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) and determine the effect of OF colonization on urinary oxalate excretion. It has been proposed that loss of OF colonization after RYGB may contribute to the ...

To determine the prevalence of increased intraepithelial lymphocytes, using immunohistochemistry in patients with normal colonoscopy and near normal biopsy. We retrospectively reviewed all non-malignant colon mucosal biopsies between 2005 and 2007, reported as normal, chronic inflammation or melanosis coli in patients who were undergoing routine colonoscopy. Immunohistochemistry using CD3 was ...

BACKGROUND: Colonic transit (CT) is accelerated in 46% of patients with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D). Improvement in IBS-D with gluten withdrawal is associated with human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DQ2 positivity; the mechanism of improvement is unclear. OBJECTIVE: To determine if HLA-DQ2-positive or HLA-DQ8-positive patients with IBS-D have faster small bowel ...

BACKGROUND: Colonic response to food (CRF) is abnormal in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients. AIMS: The aim of this study was to compare CRF in patients who complain of abnormal defecation pattern according to the presence or absence of abdominal pain. METHODS: One hundred forty-nine patients and 50 controls were ...

BACKGROUND: Bowel ultrasound has been shown to be a useful tool to evaluate patients with inflammatory bowel disease, especially Crohn's disease. However, such data are still scarce in ulcerative colitis patients. AIMS: To establish the value of bowel ultrasound in moderate to severe ulcerative colitis patients, and compare these data ...

Abstract Objective. The utility of fecal calprotectin (fCal) in small bowel Crohn's disease (CD) remains to be clarified. The primary aim of this study was to determine levels of fCal in CD restricted to the small bowel compared with CD affecting the colon, in patients undergoing their first diagnostic work-up. ...

The aim of this study is to assess 2 different bowel-cleansing agents. The patients were prospectively randomized to 2 arms of sodium phosphate versus Sennoside A+B calcium preparation. Laboratory assessment, body weight, height, and vital signs were obtained at baseline and before colonoscopy. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by the ...

Patients with acromegaly have higher prevalence of colorectal neoplasms. The pathogenetic mechanism is still unclear and may be related to sustained increase in serum GH-IGF1. We aimed to evaluate the proliferative and apoptotic markers in samples of colonic mucosa obtained during screening colonoscopic biopsy from patients with acromegaly and study ...

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) seems to differ from IBD without PSC, but a systematic, prospective study of IBD in PSC has until now not been reported. We aimed to describe the clinical, endoscopic, and histopathologic features of PSC-IBD in liver-transplanted and nontransplanted ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Real-time tissue sonoelastography (EG) is a new non-invasive technique that visualizes differences in tissue strain. We evaluated the usefulness of EG in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) by investigating the association between EG and colonoscopic findings and disease activity. METHODS: Thirty-seven UC patients undergoing EG and colonoscopy were ...

To determine whether distinct symptom groupings exist in a constipated population and whether such grouping might correlate with quantifiable pathophysiological measures of colonic dysfunction. One hundred and ninety-one patients presenting to a Gastroenterology clinic with constipation and 32 constipated patients responding to a newspaper advertisement completed a 53-item, wide-ranging self-report ...

BACKGROUND: Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) confers an increased risk of colon cancer in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, there is a scarcity of data to determine whether the rate of colon cancer changes after liver transplantation (LT) in IBD patients with PSC. The aims were 1) to estimate ...

BACKGROUND: Colectomy is the definitive treatment for ulcerative colitis (UC) to remove the inflammatory burden. Crohn's disease, however, can affect any portion of the bowel with a propensity to involve the terminal ileum. In some patients with fulminant colitis, distinction between the two is imperfect. Manifestations of Crohn's after colectomy ...

PURPOSE: Capsule endoscopy by enabling direct visualization of small bowel mucosa has conquered the last frontier of diagnostic endoscopy. However, its ability to simultaneously detect colonic lesions has not been evaluated. This study was done to evaluate frequency of detection of colonic abnormalities in patients undergoing small bowel capsule endoscopy ...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study is to explore how the technical quality of the examination was affected by diverticular disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated a consecutive series of 78 subjects who underwent CTC for screening (n=58) or staging (n=20) colorectal cancer, 38 of them (49%) after an ...

BACKGROUND: Current surveillance guidelines for patients with long-standing ulcerative colitis (UC) recommend repeated colonoscopy with random biopsies, which is time-consuming, discomforting, and expensive. A less invasive strategy is to identify neoplasia by analyzing biomarkers from the more accessible rectum to predict the need for a full colonoscopy. The goal of ...

Abstract The normal number and distribution of mast cells (MCs) and eosinophils in colonic mucosa is largely unknown. Accordingly, we examined colonic biopsies obtained during endoscopic examination of pediatric patients. The study included 41 patients (21 males and 20 females). The mean age was 11.72 years (range 3.3-19.7 years). Patients ...

OBJECTIVE:: The aim of this study was to assess and compare the diagnostic value of elements of the disease history, physical examination, and routine laboratory tests in patients with suspected acute left-sided colonic diverticulitis (ALCD). BACKGROUND:: Misdiagnosis rates for diverticulitis vary in literature between 34% and 68% which needs improvement. ...

BACKGROUND: Methotrexate (MTX) is used as an alternative immunosuppressive treatment for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The aim of the study was to evaluate effectiveness and tolerance of MTX for children with IBD. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted in our pediatric IBD center of all children having received ...

Background The study of intestinal microbiota has been revolutionised by the use of molecular methods, including terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis. Microbiota studies of Crohn's disease patients have examined samples from stool or from the neoterminal ileum with a standard biopsy forceps, which could be contaminated by colonic ...

To evaluate the natural history of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection in a series of 28 ulcerative colitis patients in whom the search for HCMV was positive. A series of 85 patients with moderate-severe ulcerative colitis flare-up were evaluated for a HCMV search by performing a haematoxylin and eosin stain, immunohistochemical ...

BACKGROUND: The MUC2 mucin organizes the two mucus layers in the colon. This mucin carries a large number of O-glycans that are assumed to be attachment sites for the commensal flora found in the outer mucus layer. METHODS: Single biopsies from the sigmoid colon of controls (25) and patients with ...

: The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis (MAP) DNA in intestinal biopsies from pediatric patients with granulomatous Crohn disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC), and matched control subjects without inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). : DNA was extracted from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded ...

BACKGROUND:: The optimal endoscopic investigation of diarrhea in patients under age 50 without specific features of right-sided colonic/ileal disease is inadequately defined. OBJECTIVE:: To assess the potential additional yield of colonoscopy over flexible sigmoidoscopy (FS) in this group. DESIGN:: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING:: Two teaching hospital endoscopy units. PATIENTS:: This ...

Background  A number of studies argue in favour of an important role of microbial colonization, in particular of Staphylococcus aureus, in triggering atopic dermatitis (AD) flare-up and psoriasis, in particular through the superantigenic properties of toxins generated by S. aureus. Objectives  The aim of this study was to assess the ...

Gastrointestinal (GI) tract involvement by Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare condition. It is typically noted in male patients with systemic disease and is associated with both poor prognosis and high morbidity. The incidence peaks in childhood. However, a limited number of cases have been reported in adults. To ...

Colonic polyps are frequently encountered in clinics. Computed tomographic colonography (CTC), as a painless and quick detection, has high values in clinics. In this study, we evaluated the application value of computer-aided detection (CAD) in CTC detection of colonic polyps in the Chinese population. CTC was performed with a GE ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of folate and homocysteine on colon tumorigenesis by performing colonoscopy and examining serum folate and homocysteine levels in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. We performed colonoscopy in 72 ESRD patients who were undergoing hemodialysis and also measured their serum folate ...

BACKGROUND: Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis is a powerful tool to assess the diversity of a microbial community. In this study, we performed T-RFLP analysis of the fecal microbiota from patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and those with Crohn's disease (CD). METHODS: Thirty-one patients with UC, 31 patients ...

Patients with ulcerative colitis uniformly have disease involving the distal colon. When patients have disease limited to the left colon or symptoms suggestive of active rectal inflammation, guidelines recommend topical rectal therapies as first-line agents either as monotherapy or in conjunction with oral products. Rectal delivery modalities offer the advantage ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The enteric glia network may be involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Enteric glia cells (EGCs) are the major source of glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), which regulates apoptosis of enterocytes. The aim of the study was to determine the distribution of EGCs and GDNF during ...

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of middle ear alterations in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. METHODS: In this descriptive study, 120 CF patients aged 5 months to 18 years were assessed by clinical history, otoscopy, and tympanometry. Data on P. aeruginosa colonization and parenteral and/or inhaled aminoglycoside use were also collected ...

Background: Minimal preparation CT of the colon (MPCT colon) is used for investigation of suspected colorectal cancer in frail and/or elderly patients who would be expected to tolerate laxative bowel preparation poorly. Although it has good sensitivity for colorectal cancer it has a poor specificity. We wished to investigate whether ...

BACKGROUND: In Egypt, few data are available on the outcome of colonoscopy. Epidemiologic studies have shown that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) tends to increase. Endoscopists have reported an increasing incidence of IBD and colorectal cancer (CRC). This may be explained by an increasing index of suspicion and the availability of ...

The black-pigmented fungus Exophiala dermatitidis is considered to be a harmless colonizer of the airways of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. The aim of this study was to establish the recovery rate of E. dermatitidis in respiratory specimens from CF patients, transplant recipients, and subjects with other respiratory disorders in Sweden. ...

: To evaluate the distal extent and attenuation of bowel opacification achieved after administration of a single low volume dose of oral contrast 2 hours before computed tomographic colonography (CTC) after incomplete optical colonoscopy. : This retrospective study included 144 patients undergoing CTC after incomplete colonoscopy from April 2006 to ...

we aimed to analyze clinical and inflammatory markers of steroid non-response in patients with moderate/severe ulcerative colitis (UC) at the time of diagnosis. this study included patients who were graded as having moderate/severe UC and received corticosteroids as first-line therapy. Demographic, clinical and laboratory findings and pediatric ulcerative colitis activity ...

Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2011; 33: 358-365 SUMMARY: Background  Ulcerative colitis with diverticulosis (UCD), segmental colitis associated with diverticulosis (SCAD) and acute uncomplicated diverticulitis (AUD) may affect the same colonic regions, but the real incidence of these entities in clinical practice is unknown. Aim  To assess the incidence and the endoscopic ...