Latest Conference Articles

C. Difficile is big. It has surpassed MRSA as the most common hospital acquired infection.

At the 2015 Cardiometabolic Health Congress, Christie M. Ballantyne, MD, moderated a panel discussion focusing on current cholesterol guidelines and several changes that may be coming soon.

Lipid resuscitation therapy was identified in 1998 as an effective treatment for local anesthetic systemic toxicity. Since then, researchers have developed a better understanding of the risk factors involved and the manner in which lipids work, using both dynamic scavenging and direct cardiotonic effects.

Elevated levels of triglycerides have been proven time and time again to be linked to cardiovascular disease. While it can be a challenging condition to control, it opens the door for treatments.

It wasn't long ago that researchers first identified a piece of DNA that regulates cholesterol. This gene has been recently developed into a cholesterol-lowering agent and it's time to address where we go from here.

Could treating patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) be as simple as changing their diet?

Fecal micriobiota transplant has been moving into mainstream medicine even without any randomonized placebo controlled trials showing it works for treating recurrent C. difficile infection. Now a long-awaited trial confirms that it works.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is treated by necessity with insulin analogues in an attempt to mimic normal physiological insulin profiles. Regardless, this approach is rarely completely successful and most T1DM patients experience fluctuating or suboptimal glucose control, significant hypoglycemia and microvascular tissue complications.

Most adults in developed nations struggle with their weight. Ample quantities of high-quality foods (and plenty of sugar- and fat-laden snacks) do more than just nourish us. They allow us to overindulge; in fact, they tend to make people eat mindlessly.

Altered gut microbes are implicated in an increased susceptibility to C. difficile infection, researchers reported at the American College of Gastroenterology Scientific Meeting in Honolulu.

Some microbes are more associated with specific irritable bowel disease symptoms than others, researchers reporting at the American College of Gastroenterology Scientic Meeting reported.

Treatments for irritable bowel system are proliferating. In addition to new drugs, more drug candidates are entering the approval pipeline. Even as physicians await these new products, their patients are getting into the act by doing internet research and other reading-and tv watching-that has them trying unproven remedies with mixed results.

The American College of Gastroenterology is not optimistic that its staff's lobbying efforts to head off a reduction in the amount Medicare will reimburse physicians for performing a colonoscopy will succeed.

A conversation between ASGE President Douglas Faigel, MD and CMS looks to produce some interesting feedback and clarity in the next two months. Faigel said, "We're starting to win the war on colon cancer and the last thing we want to do is put up barriers for patient Medicare beneficiary access to colonoscopies."

Maintenance of certification (MOC) is a touchy issue for the profession of gastroenterology. Outgoing president of the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) Stephen Hanauer, MD, has assured members that the organization is confident it has reached an agreement with the ABIM that will "put on hold some of the more burdensome aspects of the 'maintenance' process."

Pancreatic cancer is a difficult disease to treat successfully. For urban African Americans, that picture may be even worse, a Georgia researcher and colleagues found. Their report, subtitled "Too Young, Too Late" was presented today at the American College of Gastroenterology Scientific Meeting in Honolulu.

The numbers are in on studies of a new diagnostic called PancraGen's ability to distinguish pancreatic malignancies from other findings in pancreatic cysts.

It's a constant question of whether physician decision making has benefitted the patients or not.

The molecular test PancraGen helps identify false negative cases that could be missed by first-line tests like imaging, cytology and fluid chemistry.

The effective arsenal of antivirals for hepatitis C just keeps getting bigger and better. Speaking at the American College of Gastroenterology meeting in Honolulu, experts are anticipating new drugs that will work for all six hepatitis virus genotypes. Meanwhile, matching patients to drugs can be complicated.

IBS patients are great, because many times they come to you frustrated they don't have a "diagnosis".

The probiotics didn't work well enough to cure patients, but the stool transplants miraculously did.

The guy microbiome is being studied across the healthcare spectrum as more is learned about this part of a person's anatomy. What it could mean for the treatment of multiple sclerosis has yet to be determined.

Pennies, chicken bones, and dishwasher cleaning powders. Gastroenterologists who work at hospitals are likely to get called in when people either accidentally or purposefully swallow something they should not. At the American College of Gastroenterology Annual Scientific Meeting in Honolulu, a physician at NYU Langone Medical Center offered a treatment primer.

All physicians want to deliver quality care. But do the checklists required to measure quality really add up to giving patients the results they want? As the American College of Gastroenterology Annual Scientific Meeting gets underway in Honolulu, the question came up in the context of managing irritable bowel disease.

There are many factors that can contribute to a person's condition with multiple sclerosis. A recent study looked at what role melatonin can play in the process.

Pancreatic cancer is hard to cure and even diagnosing it is challenging. Among the eagerly awaiting research topics to be presented at the American College of Gastroenterology Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii are reports on new developments in detecting malignancies.

Earlier this year the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers held its annual conference in Indianapolis with more than 2000 people in attendance. All with the same goal of improving the care they provide their patients with this difficult disease.

There are many factors that patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis need to consider when managing their condition. While the physical symptoms can be the highest priority, quality of life is an area which is gaining greater recognition in the field.

As the number of treatment options for multiple sclerosis continues to grow patients and their doctors are left to find the right choice for them in order to manage the disease as successfully as possible. This can be a long process that can have a long lasting impact on their overall health.