Der Internist
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Polyps of the gastrointestinal tract encompass a variety of epithelial and non-epithelial tumour-like conditions. The most common polyps are epithelial lesions. In the upper gastrointestinal tract, reactive inflammatory changes and hyperplastic polyps dominate, whereas true neoplastic polyps, like adenomas, are much more common in the colorectum. ⋯ The risk of malignancy is determined by the histological subtype of polyp, as well as the size, presence and degree of dysplasia. The term "dysplasia" has been reintroduced for adenomas in the current 2019 World Health Organization (WHO) classification and replaces "intraepithelial neoplasia". A further change is the term "sessile serrated lesion" with and without dysplasia, which was formerly known as sessile serrated adenoma.
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Hepatitis viruses A-E cause acute and chronic liver inflammation and thus lead to significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. They differ significantly in their biology, course of disease and therapy options. While hepatitis A virus only causes acute infection, hepatitis B can become chronic, even reactivate or occur as coinfection with hepatitis D virus. ⋯ However, new direct antiviral agents reliably lead to cure of chronic hepatitis C. Hepatitis E virus frequently causes acute or-in case of immunosuppression-even chronic hepatitis. Continual screening of patients with elevated liver enzymes or risk groups using simple serological markers can enable virus-specific therapy of mostly asymptomatic chronic virus hepatitis, preventing the development of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.