Gut
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Scintigraphy with autologous granulocytes labelled by technetium-99m hexamethyl, propylene amine oxime (99mTc-HMPAO) was performed in 103 Crohn's disease patients and 52 healthy controls. In 31 patients endoscopic and histologic activity was compared with scan activity index. In the 98 patients with a positive scan, the extent of Crohn's disease, assessed by scintigraphy, was compared with that evaluated by small bowel x ray or colonoscopy with biopsies. ⋯ No correlation was seen between the three clinical activity parameters and scanning; in more than 80% of the cases in remission on the basis of a clinical or laboratory index, scintigraphy remained positive. Medical treatment was effective on the clinical indices but not on the active inflammation in the ileum, whereas it led to a negative scan in 5/11 cases in the large intestine. Scintigraphy with 99mTc-HMPAO granulocyte plays an important part in Crohn's disease for the diagnosis of complications, for activity and assessment of the extent, and for the treatment results evaluation.
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Most patients with chronic duodenal ulcer disease have Helicobacter pylori infection and eradicating it considerably reduces the relapse rate. The prevalence of H pylori in 80 patients (mean age = 52 years, range 17-85) presenting with acute perforated duodenal ulcer was examined and compared with age and sex matched hospital control patients. H pylori state was assessed by serum anti-H pylori IgG (Helico-G kit, Porton) using a titre of 18 or less as negative with a specificity of 89% and sensitivity of 88%. ⋯ Duodenal ulcer disease had been diagnosed before acute perforation in only 24% of those with H pylori and also 24% of those without the infection. Regular non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use was common in both those with (44%) and without (45%) H pylori. In conclusion, the lack of association of acute perforated duodenal ulcer and H pylori infection suggests that perforated duodenal ulcer has a different pathogenesis from chronic duodenal ulcer disease, and that the first should not be regarded simply as a complication of the second.