Digestive and liver disease : official journal of the Italian Society of Gastroenterology and the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver
-
Comment Letter Comparative Study
ERCP versus conservative treatment in acute pancreatitis: meta-analysis or meta-confusion?
-
Gastrointestinal (GI) disorders account for 10% of all consultations in primary care. Little is known about the management of GI disorders by general practitioners (GP) across different European countries. ⋯ The wide variation between GPs both between and within countries partly reflects variations in health care systems but also differing levels of knowledge and awareness, factors which are relevant to educational and research policy.
-
Comparative Study
Faecal calprotectin as reliable non-invasive marker to assess the severity of mucosal inflammation in children with inflammatory bowel disease.
An accurate monitoring of mucosal inflammation is important for an effective management of patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Intestinal inflammation can be detected by faecal calprotectin level determination. ⋯ A more accurate assessment of the severity of mucosal inflammation can be achieved by the determination of faecal calprotectin levels compared to other common clinical and laboratory indices. This non-invasive and objective method could be particular useful in patients with apparent clinical and laboratory remission.
-
Comparative Study
The effects of SOCS-1 on liver endotoxin tolerance development induced by a low dose of lipopolysaccharide are related to dampen NF-kappaB-mediated pathway.
Endotoxin tolerance is an important mechanism to maintain the homeostasis of liver. It was reported that suppressors of cytokine signalling-1 was a negative regulator of lipopolysaccharide-induced macrophages activation, however, the mechanism underlying endotoxin tolerance and suppressors of cytokine signalling-1 has not been fully elucidated. ⋯ Endotoxin tolerance induced by lipopolysaccharide pretreatment was accompanied with upregulation of suppressors of cytokine signalling-1 and the silence of suppressors of cytokine signalling-1 by RNA interference obviously attenuated this inhibitive effect, indicating that the absence of suppressors of cytokine signalling-1 caused abnormal enhancement of inflammatory cytokine production and suppressors of cytokine signalling-1 was involved in endotoxin tolerance inducement through dampening nuclear factor-kappaB-mediated pathway. Therefore, suppressors of cytokine signalling-1 may be a new target for the clinical treatment of sepsis.
-
6-Mercaptopurine and its prodrug azathioprine are effective for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. Thiopurine methyltransferase is important for the metabolism of thiopurines. However, there is controversy as to the clinical utility of measuring thiopurine methyltransferase enzyme activity and 6-thioguanine nucleotide levels. Our aim was to determine if thiopurine methyltransferase enzyme activity and 6-thioguanine nucleotide level monitoring would predict response to therapy with thiopurines in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. ⋯ Thiopurine methyltransferase activity inversely correlated with clinical response to thiopurine treatment in inflammatory bowel disease. Thiopurine methyltransferase enzyme activity below 30.5 U combined with a post-treatment 6-thioguanine nucleotide level > 230 pmol/8 x 10(8) erythrocytes was the best predictor of response.