Journal of Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases : JGLD

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The mineral compound Luvos Healing Earth (LHE) is a commercially available remedy empirically used for a variety of gastrointestinal disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible effect of prolonged LHE therapy on gut microbiota in healthy individuals and in patients with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D). METHODS: In this prospective exploratory study, a total of 20 participants, including 12 healthy controls and 8 patients with IBS-D, received treatment with LHE (Magenfein Granulat, 1 sachet bid) for 6 weeks...

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BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Previous studies have reported gender differences in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). These studies have also reported differences based on gender in the rates of complications. In this study, we aim to identify gender disparities in the rates of GERD complications in the United States. METHODS: We queried the 2016-2020 National Inpatient Sample database to identify patients with GERD. Patients with eosinophilic esophagitis or missing demographics were excluded...

A 57-year-old man presented with dysphagia in solids and liquids deteriorating in the last months and weight loss of 3 kg. A thoracic CT revealed a limit dilatation of the lower esophagus with food residue. An upper endoscopy was performed revealing bubble content and a contraction of the Lower Esophageal Sphincter (LES). A barium esophagogram demonstrated deceleration of esophageal emptying and a bird beak sign indicative of esophageal achalasia (Figure A). High resolution esophageal manometry was performed to evaluate the subtype of achalasia...

Patients with chronic liver diseases (CLD) were considered to be in peril during the initial stages of the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic. Progression of the course of the pandemic, however indicated that risk of severe disease and mortality differed, based on the cause of the hepatic disease. Patients suffering from Alcoholic liver disease or liver cirrhosis were confirmed to be at an increased risk by numerous studies, while that was not the case for HBV affected individuals and liver transplant recipients...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Amyloidosis is a group of systemic disorders caused by extracellular deposition of misfolded serum proteins. Gastrointestinal (GI) involvement is associated with a higher risk of GI bleeding, especially if mucosal lesions are present. Our study aims to evaluate the frequency of GI manifestations in patients with amyloidosis, to clinically characterize these patients and to describe the endoscopic and histopathologic findings in GI amyloidosis. METHODS: A retrospective, single-center study of all patients admitted with amyloidosis and GI manifestations was conducted at a German University Hospital between July 2003 and June 2023...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Immune checkpoint inhibitors may cause various types of organ damage as immune-related adverse events, of which, liver damage is the most common. Herein, we evaluated the clinicopathological features of immune checkpoint inhibitor-related liver injury and investigated the differences between immune checkpoint inhibitor-related liver injury and drug-induced liver injury or autoimmune hepatitis. METHODS: We selected patients with ≥ grade 3 liver injury who were diagnosed with immune checkpoint inhibitor-related liver injury (n=15)...

AIMS: To assess the value of using integrated parametric ultrasound software for contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) of liver tumors. METHODS: 107 patients with liver tumors were studied. CEUS were performed to detect focal lesions. Parametric images were based on continuous CINE LOOPs, from the early-arterial phase (15 s) to the portal-venous phase (1 min) generated by perfusion software. The evaluations of the parametric images and their dignity for liver lesions were performed independently by an experienced and a less-experienced investigator...

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BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The primary method for assessing anorectal function is high resolution anorectal manometry (HRAM). It is a useful tool in the diagnosis of different anorectal functional disorders such as fecal incontinence or dyssynergia. The aim of the present study was to propose a new set of normal values to be used in practice for East-European individuals, as it was proven that the results are highly influenced by race and sociocultural status. METHODS: We conducted a study based on anorectal manometric values of healthy volunteers analyzed at Clinic Fundeni Institute, Bucharest, Romania, between 2017 and 2022...

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BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is one of the most frequently diagnosed gastrointestinal disease with a prevalence of 4.1% in the general population. It is diagnosed using the Rome IV criteria. Microscopic colitis (MC), collagenous/lymphocytic colitis is a cause of chronic, watery, non-bloody diarrhea. It is a real challenge to diagnose MC in patients with IBS. The aims of the study were to determine the prevalence of MC in patients initially diagnosed with IBS, as well as to correlate fecal calprotectin levels with the endoscopic findings and microscopic inflammation in MC...

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BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Childlessness and infertility represent a frequent and important issue in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. Nevertheless, until now epidemiological data remains scarce. Therefore, main objectives of this study were to evaluate the rate of childlessness and the cumulative probability of reproduction in female and male IBD patients within the Swiss Inflammatory Bowel Disease Cohort Study (SIBDCS), a large prospective multicenter nationwide cohort. METHODS: Prospectively collected data of SIBDCS was used, comprising more than 3,300 patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC)...

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Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) guided biliary drainage (BD) is an accepted salvage procedure in patients with distal malignant biliary obstruction (DMBO) when endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is unsuccessful. The potential advantages of EUS-BD include gastric or duodenal biliary access, utilization of novel biliary stents and stent placement away from the area of stenosis, resulting in longer stent patency. These features make EUS-BD very appealing as a primary procedure for biliary drainage...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Subcutaneous vedolizumab formulation has been shown to be as effective and safe as the intravenous one in randomized control trials. Real-life data are limited especially for patients receiving long-term intravenous therapy. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of switching from intravenous to subcutaneous vedolizumab in a large cohort of patients with stable clinical remission. METHODS: In this prospective cohort study, we enrolled consecutive patients attending our center between September 2021 and April 2022...

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