Scandinavian journal of gastroenterology
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Scand. J. Gastroenterol. · Dec 2014
Comparative Study Clinical TrialFecal calprotectin is an effective diagnostic tool that differentiates inflammatory from functional intestinal disorders.
The clinical pictures of functional gastrointestinal disorders and inflammatory diseases can be quite similar leading to inappropriate and expensive investigations. Objective. To investigate fecal calprotectin (FC) diagnostic performance in different gastrointestinal conditions. ⋯ FC appears to be a reliable noninvasive biomarker of intestinal inflammation useful to improve the appropriateness of colonoscopy requests.
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Scand. J. Gastroenterol. · Dec 2014
No antibiotics in acute uncomplicated diverticulitis: does it work?
The first randomized multicenter study evaluating the need for antibiotic treatment in patients with acute uncomplicated diverticulitis (AUD) could not demonstrate any benefit gained from antibiotic use. The aim of this study was to review the application of the no antibiotic policy and its consequences in regard to complications and recurrence. ⋯ The no-antibiotic policy for AUD is safe and applicable in clinical practice. The previous results of a low complication and recurrence rate in AUD are confirmed. There is no need for antibiotic treatment for AUD. What does this paper add to the literature? Despite published papers with excellent results, there are still doubts about patient safety against the policy to not use antibiotics in acute uncomplicated diverticulitis. This is the first paper, in actual clinical practice, to confirm that the no antibiotic policy for acute uncomplicated diverticulitis is applicable and safe.
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Scand. J. Gastroenterol. · Dec 2014
Analysis of second-line chemotherapies for ductal pancreatic adenocarcinoma in a German single-center cohort.
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the third most common tumor of the gastrointestinal tract. At the time of diagnosis, the majority of PDACs shows already metastasis and does not qualify for curative surgery. Therefore, palliative chemotherapy has a very high priority, but recommendations after failure of first-line chemotherapies are quite limited. ⋯ Interestingly, there was also no effect of the first-line treatment and their duration for the OS of the second-line therapy. According to our findings, second-line chemotherapies in advanced PDAC are beneficial and should be offered to patients, but we did not detect any superiority of a specific drug combination. More prospective, randomized and larger studies are necessary to evaluate new strategies for second-line chemotherapies.