Background & Aims Available prognostic models for mortality after an acute variceal hemorrhage have limitations that restrict their clinical value. We assessed the performance of a novel prognostic ...approach based on classification and regression tree (CART) analysis. Methods Logistic regression (LR) and CART analyses were performed to identify prognostic models for mortality at 6 weeks in a single-center cohort of 267 consecutive patients with acute variceal bleeding. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed to assess the performance of the models. Prognostic models were fitted and validated by split-sample technique (training set, 164 patients, 2001–2005; test set, 103 patients, 2006–2008). Results After 6 weeks, 21% of patients experienced rebleeding and 24% died. The best LR model was based on Child–Pugh score, creatinine level, bacterial infection, and hepatocellular carcinoma. CART analysis provided a simple algorithm based on the combined use of just 3 variables (Child–Pugh score, creatinine level, and bacterial infection), allowing accurate early discrimination of 3 distinct prognostic subgroups with 8% (low risk), 17% (intermediate), and 50% to 73% (high) mortality. Its accuracy was similar to the LR model (area under the ROC curves, 0.81 vs 0.84; P = .17) and better than that of Child–Pugh (0.75; P = .05) and model for end-stage liver disease (0.74; P = .05). The prognostic accuracy of both LR and CART models was validated in the test set (area under the ROC curve values, 0.81 and 0.83, respectively). Conclusions A simple CART algorithm based on Child–Pugh score, creatinine level, and infection allowed an accurate predictive assessment of 6-week mortality after acute variceal bleeding.
Purpose
Biliary ductal injuries are challenging to treat, and often lead to severe morbidity and mortality. The first-line approach involves endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography with ...sphincterotomy and, in case of refractory leakage, long-lasting percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage, endoscopic or percutaneous injection of sclerosing agents and/or coiling can be used. We describe a treatment procedure using microcatheter-mediated percutaneous or endoscopic argon plasma coagulation (APC).
Materials and Methods
Three patients (7-year-old male, 14-year-old male, 81-year-old female) with refractory postsurgical and/or post-traumatic bile leaks underwent percutaneous (
n
= 2) or endoscopic (
n
= 1) APC through a detachable microcatheter.
Results
The procedure was technically feasible in all patients. Postoperative imaging showed complete occlusion of biliary leakage. The technique was uneventful intraoperatively with no adverse events occurring during recovery or follow-up.
Conclusion
Our initial experience demonstrates that refractory bile duct leaks may be successfully treated with microcatheter-mediated APC endoscopically or percutaneously. Further research is needed to confirm the safety, efficacy, and clinical indications for this innovative technique.
Capsule endoscopy (CE) is superior to push enteroscopy and small bowel barium radiography in detecting the source of obscure GI bleeding. We now compared whether CE has a superior diagnostic yield ...than CT angiography (CTA) or standard mesenteric angiography (ANGIO) in patients with obscure GI bleeding.
From June 2004 to October 2005, consecutive patients admitted for OGIB underwent both CTA and ANGIO, followed by CE, performed blindly by independent examiners within the next 7 days. The primary end point of the study was the diagnostic yield for each technique, defined as the frequency of detection of lesions with a high probability of bleeding.
Twenty-eight patients (16 men and 12 women, mean age 74 +/- 2 yr) with OGIB (overt bleeding in 20 cases and chronic occult in 8) were prospectively evaluated. CTA or standard angiography could be performed in 25 of 28 patients (applicability 86%), because of contrast allergy (1 patient) and chronic renal failure (2 patients). A source of bleeding was detected by CE in a greater proportion of patients, 72% (18 of 25, 95% CI 50.6-87.9%), than CTA, 24% (6 of 25, 95% CI 9.4-45.1%, P= 0.005 vs CE), or ANGIO, 56% (14 of 25, 95% CI 34.9-75.6%, P= NS). Similarly, CE was able to diagnose 100% of patients diagnosed by CTA and 86% of patients diagnosed by ANGIO. Moreover, CE was positive in 12 of 19 (63%) negative cases on CTA and in 6 of 11 (55%) negative cases on ANGIO. As a result of the CE findings, therapeutic intervention was undertaken in 9 of 19 (47%) patients with positive results.
CE detects more lesions than CTA or standard mesenteric angiography in patients with obscure GI bleeding and has a therapeutic impact in almost half of the patients with positive findings.
Introduction
Levodopa‐carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG) infusion has demonstrated to improve motor fluctuations. The aim of this study is to assess the long‐term safety and effectiveness of LCIG ...infusion in advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with motor fluctuations and its effect in nonmotor symptoms.
Methods
Adverse events (AE) and their management, clinical motor, and nonmotor aspects were assessed up to 10 years. Thirty‐seven patients were treated with LGIC; in three subsets of patients, specific batteries of tests were used to assess cognitive and behavior assessment for 6 months, quality of sleep for 6 months, and quality of life and caregiver burden for 1 year.
Results
There was a high number of AE, but manageable, most of mild and moderate severity. All patients experienced significant improvement in motor fluctuations with a reduction in mean daily off time of 4.87 hr after 3 months (n = 37) to 6.25 hr after 9 years (n = 2). Diskynesias remained stables in 28 patients (75.7%) and improved in 5 patients (13.5%). There was no neuropsychological deterioration, but an improvement in attentional functions, voluntary motor control, and semantic fluency. Quality of sleep did not worsen, and there was an improvement in the subjective parameters, although overnight polysomnography did not change. There was a significant sustained improvement of 37% in PD‐Q39 after 3 months and to 1 year, and a significant reduction in caregiver burden of 10% after 3 months.
Conclusion
LCIG infusion is a safe and efficacious treatment for the control of motor fluctuations, and for improvement or nonworsening of nonmotor aspects, long‐term sustained, and feasible for use in routine care.
This long‐term safety and effectiveness study of levodopa‐carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG) infusion in advanced Parkinson's disease patients with motor fluctuations and its effect in nonmotor symptoms concludes that LCIG infusion is a safe and efficacious treatment for the control of motor fluctuations, and for improvement or nonworsening of cognition and behavior, quality of sleep and improvement of quality of life and caregiver burden, long‐term sustained, and feasible for use in routine care.
To establish the prevalence of non-coeliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) in a cohort of fibromyalgia patients and to evaluate their clinical response to a six-week gluten-free diet (GFD), the improvement ...in their symptoms, the percentage of diet responders who did not fulfil the diagnostic criteria for NCGS and the baseline characteristics that were associated with diet response and diagnostic criteria fulfilment.
Uncontrolled prospective experimental study in a cohort of patients with fibromyalgia from a specialized hospital unit. The percentage of patients that fulfilled the Salerno Experts' Criteria, that responded to GFD, that improved their symptomatology and baseline characteristics associated with GFD response and diagnostic criteria fulfilment was analysed.
In total, 142 patients were selected and a NCGS prevalence of 5.6% was observed. A total of 21.8% responded to GFD due to their improvement in intestinal symptoms. In total, 74.2% of the responders did not fulfil the Salerno Experts' Criteria. The presence of diarrhoea and intraepithelial lymphocytosis and lower levels of anxiety were predictive factors of GFD response. No predictive factors of NCGS criteria fulfilment were found due to the low number of discriminators between gluten and placebo.
A NCGS prevalence similar to that estimated in the general population was found. A GFD cannot be systematically recommended to all patients with fibromyalgia, although it could be evaluated in those with diarrhoea or intraepithelial lymphocytosis to evaluate if there are improvements in their intestinal symptoms.
BACKGROUND AND AIMSRecurrent bleeding from gastrointestinal (GI) angiodysplasia remains a therapeutic challenge. Identification of factors predicting poor outcome of haemorrhage from angiodysplasia ...would help us to select the patients who may likely benefit from further therapy. Thus, we analysed risk factors for recurrence of acute GI haemorrhage from angiodysplasia.
PATIENTS AND METHODS62 patients admitted consecutively with acute GI bleeding from angiodysplasia, between June 2002 and June 2006, were included. Bivariate, multivariate and survival analysis were performed to identify risk factors for recurrence of bleeding after hospital discharge.
RESULTSRecurrence of acute haemorrhage after hospital discharge occurred in 17 of 57 (30%) patients (38 men; mean age74±6 years), after a mean follow-up (33±40 months). On Cox analysis, earlier history of bleeding with a high bleeding rate, over anticoagulation and the presence of multiple lesions were predictive factors of recurrence in a multivariate analysis. In contrast, endoscopic argon plasma coagulation (APC) therapy was not associated with lower rates of recurrent bleeding.
CONCLUSIONIn patients with acute GI haemorrhage from angiodysplasia, earlier bleeding with a high bleeding rate, over anticoagulation and multiple angiodisplasic lesions predict an increased risk of recurrent bleeding. Although there is a trend towards better management with endoscopic APC therapy for the prevention of recurrence of bleeding, endoscopic APC therapy is not predictive of a lower rate of recurrence.
After an acute variceal bleeding, early decision for aggressive management of patients with worse prognosis may improve outcomes. The effectiveness of currently recommended standard therapy (drugs ...plus endoscopic ligation) for different risk subgroups and the validity of available risk criteria in clinical practice are unknown.
We analyzed data of 301 consecutive cirrhotic patients admitted with esophageal variceal bleeding. All patients received antibiotics, somatostatin, and in 263 early endoscopic therapy. A stratified 6-week mortality assessment according to risk (low-risk: Child-Pugh B without active bleeding or Child-Pugh A; high-risk: Child-Pugh B with active bleeding or Child-Pugh C) was performed. A multivariate analysis was conducted to elaborate a new risk classification rule.
Among the 162 patients receiving emergency ligation, 14% rebled and 16% died. Standard therapy was very effective in all risk strata, even in high-risk patients, specially if eligible for therapeutic trials (child <14, age ≤75 years, creatinine ≤3.0 mg/dl, no hepatocellular carcinoma, or portal thrombosis), showing this stratum a 10% mortality. In patients receiving ligation, Child-Pugh C patients with baseline creatinine <1.0 mg/dl showed similar mortality to Child-Pugh A or B patients (8% vs. 7%, respectively). Only Child-Pugh C patients with creatinine ≥1.0 were at a significant higher risk (Child-Pugh C: 46% mortality if creatinine ≥1.0 vs. 8% if creatinine <1.0, P=0.006).
The combination of somatostatin, antibiotics, and endoscopic ligation after an acute variceal bleeding in a real-life situation is associated with very low mortality. Child-Pugh C patients with baseline creatinine ≥1.0 mg/dl should be considered high-risk patients in this setting.
Variceal hemorrhage can be a life-threatening adverse event of chronic liver disease. In contrast to the well-described guidelines for the management of portal hypertension (PH) in adults, there is ...limited evidence about the optimal prophylactic management of variceal bleeding in children. This study was carried out to assess the efficacy of endoscopic variceal ligation (EVL) as primary prophylaxis to prevent upper GI bleeding in children with PH.
From January 2014 to April 2018, all pediatric patients with PH disease and medium to large esophageal varices or reddish spots, regardless of the grade of the varix, were prospectively included in the protocol of primary prophylaxis with EVL. A second retrospective group of patients was made after reviewing medical records of 32 pediatric patients with PH that presented esophageal varices in the upper endoscopy and had received propranolol as primary prophylaxis.
Twenty-four patients (75%) reached varices eradication in the EVL group, with a median of 2 procedures (range, 1-4) before eradication and a median time to eradication of 3.40 months (range, 1.10-13.33). No EVL-related adverse events were observed. Statistically significant differences were observed in the bleeding rate at 3 years between propranolol and EVL groups (6/32 21.9% vs 1/32 3.2%, P < .02). The hazard ratio for bleeding for patients treated with propranolol compared with those treated with EVL was 2.6 (95% confidence interval, 1.53-3.67).
EVL is a safe and effective treatment to prevent upper GI bleeding in pediatric patients with PH. (Clinical trial registration number: NCT03943784.)
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