Gastroenterology

Women afflicted with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are at higher risk for cervical dysplasia and cancer.

The field of medical technology is constantly expanding and changing requiring new equipment to be used in a variety of ways. That effort has been brought under one roof at Massachusetts General Hospital thanks in part to the efforts of one generous and appreciative patient.

Secretin stimulated ultrasonography can assess pancreatic fluid flow and can combine with endoscopic short tests to evaluate exocrine pancreatic function, according to research published in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology.

Researchers who analyzed the cost of new high-price hepatitis C drugs found them to be cost effective for most patients yet likely to weigh down budgets of US government and insurance providers for years to come like no drug ever before.

The reporting of PCI results is not a common practice for many reasons, and while some states require it of their doctors, there could be both medical and political barriers standing in the way of it becoming a nationwide program.

With New York and Massachusetts leading the way laws requiring public reporting of PCI results were recently expanded to Washington State as well. A recent study looked at the risks and benefits of other states starting similar programs.

As the lifespan of adults living with cystic fibrosis (CF) has increased, a new study in the European Respiratory Journal predicts the number of cases will dramatically rise by 2025.

Patient care continues to make dramatic changes including the way information is shared not only between doctors and patients, but also other doctors treating the same people. Technology making that happen continues to evolve as well.

Nutritional experts have consistently recommended a Mediterranean dietary pattern to aid in preventing chronic disease.

Detectable hepatitis C viral loads seen when treatment has ended in patients taking direct acting antiviral therapy is not necessarily an indication that the drug regimen didn't work, according to results from a recent study.

Previous studies have revealed Aged Garlic Extract (AGE) retards multiple cardiovascular risk factors, including blood pressure, cholesterol, platelet aggregation, and adhesion, while triggering nitric oxide generation within endothelial cells.

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery has been found to decrease cardiovascular risk in obese patients.

Research has consistently identified obesity as a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Investigators have also reported on the obesity paradox concept suggesting improved prognosis in patients with obesity presenting with acute coronary syndromes.

Gut and urinary tract infections may prevent rheumatoid arthritis onset, according to research from the Karolinska Institutet.

Americans' low-fiber diets that tend to be rich in red meats put them at risk for diverticulosis, and by age 60, roughly half of Americans have or have had diverticulosis. It's not clear how many patients with diverticulosis go on to develop diverticulitis, but once diverticulitis develops, 10-25% of patients need surgery, often urgently.

The best time to treat children infected with the hepatitis C virus may be off in the future when newer, better drugs with fewer side effects are expected to be approved for pediatric populations.

A Philadelphia program operating in underserved neighborhoods found that residents chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus often lacked access to screening as well as treatment for the disease.

Further understanding the stomach's immune response to Helicobater pylori (H. pylori) infection could potentially serve as a springboard for developing new therapies targeting stomach damage, according to new research published in the journal Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Obese patients looking to lose weight or treat type 2 diabetes have often turned to gastric bypass or other stomach-shrinking surgeries, which have produced favorable results, decreasing cancer risks.

Using adjuvant systemic therapy in tangent with surgeries for localized gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) has been shown to significantly boost survival rates in patients.

Emulsifiers and food additives have been reported to alter the gut microbiota composition, triggering inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) development and metabolic syndromes.

Study results indicate that the extent of a patient's physical recovery from celiac disease does not affect that patient's long-term risk of developing atrial fibrillation or ischemic heart disease.

Eating a vegetarian diet has been linked to a lower risk of colorectal cancers.

Researchers report that weight loss and increases in bone turnover were greater after one year among patients who underwent Roux-en-Y gastric bypass compared to patients who had laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding procedures.

When obese patients who want bariatric procedures have a body mass index (BMI) of 50 to 60, surgeons must decide which technique is best. These patients are challenging. About 25% of US patients with obesity are in this group.

Due to allergy concerns and changing dietary habits, children (particularly adolescents) are consuming fewer nuts. Some researchers are concerned that the lack of this key food could contribute to other health issues later in life.

There are many possible approaches to helping overweight and obese patients. A recent study suggests one possible approach in this work could be mindfulness-based stress reduction.

Although the prevalence of Barrett's esophagus is considered moderate, the condition is the only established precursor of esophageal adenocarcinoma, and thus it has become the focus of programs of endoscopic screening and surveillance.

A recent JAMA Surgery study by Danielle A. Bischof, MD, of Johns Hopkins University and her American and Canadian colleagues was the first to estimate conditional disease-free survival (CDFS) for primary gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) following complete surgical resection.

Bariatric surgery has been shown to reduce the long-term risk of diabetes-associated vascular disease in obese patients. According to study results presented at ENDO 2015, bariatric surgery reduced the risk of developing macrovascular events by 20% and reduced the risk of microvascular events by 50%.