Gastroenterology

As the field of medical ethics continues to expand, its use can be seen in everything from general medical conditions to end of life considerations.

After a newspaper report found that less than 10 of Tennessee's thousands of HCV-positive prisoners were receiving treatment, two inmates sued the state. Now, prison officials are seeking a bit more help in battling the disease.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, a recent study notes that foodborne transmission of Clostridium difficile is a distinct possibility.

If you’re planning on chowing down on turkey this Thanksgiving (as you should), make sure to time your meal just right, because you may be well into a nap before the Cowboys-Redskins game kicks off.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina examined the gene expression and regulation in colon tissue from patients to better understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms that make up Crohn’s disease.

Despite intense efforts to disinfect hospital surfaces, C. difficile can be difficult to eliminate a two-year followup showed in Costa Rica.

The study authors noted previous articles that demonstrated the link between Parkinson’s disease in defective mitochondria, but were unsure how this mechanism took effect.

Research using mouse models demonstrated that a high-fat diet increased intestinal permeability, which led to increases in circulating and local inflammatory cytokines, and increased choroidal neovascularization.

An investigational combination drug that targets all major genotypes of hepatitis C had a high success rate in a clinical trial of patients with severe chronic kidney disease, curing 98% of those who received 12 weeks of treatment.

As more men and women who served their country come home their skills can be put to good use in the medical community. Finding those veterans and reservists and getting them the training they need can make all the difference in their life out of uniform.

While medics and corpsmen in the military do similar jobs to what nurses do in civilian practice, those skills do not translate into certification when they leave the service.

When veterans, including medics and corpsmen come back from serving overseas their medical skills do not automatically translate into certification. Colleges and Universities are developing programs to help them and also reservists earn their bachelor of science in nursing degrees.

Alternative therapies such as probiotics and synbiotics may be viable options for patients with irritable bowel disorders, according to findings published in the British Journal of Pharmacology.

Researchers tested hundreds of surface samples from a clinical laundry facility and found multiple strains of C. difficile, mainly in the areas that handled soiled clinical linens.

When patients leave the waiting room of their provider, their concerns can go with them. With the help of social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, those concerns can be addressed while information is shared in a new and effective manner.

Results from three clinical trials of an investigational drug being developed by AbbVie to treat all major genotypes of the hepatitis C virus show high cure rates at or above 95% among patients tested.

A new study out of Ireland examined the prevalence of extra-articular manifestations in axial spondyloarthritis, and found that women were at significantly higher risk for inflammatory bowel disease and uveitis than men.

Each year, approximately 700,000 people die from drug-resistant bacterial infections. A study by UCLA life scientists could be a major step toward combating drug-resistant infections.

Patients with a history of congestive heart failure were at increased risk of death during study trials of the drug, which is intended to fight recurring Clostridium difficile infections.

The search for newer antimicrobial agents is a focus of those looking to help prevent patients from developing potentially dangerous conditions while admitted to the hospital.

In many hospitals there is a consistent effort to monitor how patients are responding to various treatments. This can be done at different increments which can determine in some cases how effective treatments are against pathogens which can affect a patients' health.

There are more and more challenges facing patients and doctors in hospital settings as "superbugs," or those conditions which are resistant to medications and antibiotics become a greater problem.

A combination of sofosbuvir, velpatasvir, and voxilaprevir was found highly effective for multiple HCV genotypes after short courses of treatment.

“Our results suggest that intestinal microbiota can be modified relatively permanently,” researcher Reetta Satokari explained.

Some people favor coffee while others turn to energy drinks for their daily boost. But with all of that caffeine and sugar, it’s no wonder that the latter often gets a bad rep.

The MD Magazine editors rounded up the 10 best stories from October – did you read them all?

A new article indicates that protein consumption promotes zinc bioavailability in patients on low energy diets. all participants were insulin resistant at baseline and zinc had the expected inverse associations with body fat percentage and fat-free mass index.

Measuring the hepatitis C virus (HCV) antigen in patients who are receiving protease inhibitors (PI) could provide an alternative to monitoring treatment response, according to a recent study.

Researchers from Vanderbilt University used mice models in order to demonstrate the affects of zinc on the course of a C. difficile infection.

Gut microbiota can influence intestinal mast cells (MMC) activation through the ingestion of fat, according to findings published in Gastroenterology.