Esophageal capsule endoscopy for evaluation of patients with chronic gastroesophageal reflux symptoms: findings and its image quality.

Esophageal capsule endoscopy (ECE) may offer an alternative approach to visualize esophageal lesions associated with gastroesophageal reflux (GER) disease. The objective of this study was to report the ECE findings in patients with GER symptoms and validate a new scoring system to assess ECE video quality. Five hundred two ECE were performed in patients with GER symptoms. We devised a new grading scale called ECE Utility score to assess the quality of images using five different parameters: anatomic landmarks visualized, esophageal transit time, image quality, illumination, and artifacts. The ECE cases were independently scored by two interpreters in a randomized, blinded fashion. Reflux esophagitis was diagnosed via ECE in 254 patients (50.5%). We identified 12 cases (2.4%) with suspected Barrett's esophagus and all of them had endoscopic evidence of Barrett's esophagus on esophagogastroduodenoscopy. Histologic confirmation Barrett's esophagus was found in six patients and dysplasia was found in one patient. From the 502 cases, mean ± standard deviation total ECE Utility score was 8.89 ± 0.96 for interpreter 1 and 8.96 ± 0.93 for interpreter 2. The concordance rate between the two interpreters for the ECE Utility score ranged from 75.9-96.8% across the parameters and the Pearson correlation rate of the total score was 0.81. ECE is shown to be a simple noninvasive valuable technique for evaluating esophageal mucosa and producing high quality images in patients with GER symptoms. ECE can help as an alternative screening tool for diagnosing Barrett's esophagus.

The significance of gastric and duodenal histological ischemia reported on endoscopic biopsy.

Although frequently reported, it is unknown whether pathological reports of ischemia obtained from gastroduodenal biopsies suggest a diagnosis, prognosis or a requirement for additional evaluation. The aim of this study was to review the natural history, clinical presentation, endoscopic appearance, treatments, and major clinical outcomes of patients with gastroduodenal ischemia. A case series of 14 patients with variable etiologies (seven gastric and seven duodenal) was obtained from a search of our endoscopic pathological database for reports of histological ischemia. The results were as follows. The most common presentation was upper gastrointestinal bleeding (71 %). Half of the endoscopic lesions appeared very severe (large or circumferential lesions, exudative, pseudomembranous, black or pale mucosa). There were six cases of rebleeding (43 %) and four deaths (29 %). Computed tomography scanning was frequently used (12 cases, 86 %), but led to an underlying diagnosis in only three cases. In our series, patients with underlying vascular pathology have substantial 6-month mortality (29 %).

Outcomes of simultaneous heart-kidney transplant in the US: a retrospective analysis using OPTN/UNOS data.

Simultaneous heart-kidney transplantation (SHK) remains uncommon in the US. We examined outcomes of SHK compared to heart transplant alone (HTA) and deceased donor kidney transplant (DDKT). Data from OPTN/UNOS heart and kidney data bases were used to identify 16,710 HTA, 263 SHK transplants and 68,833 DDK transplants between 1998 and 2007. Outcomes included patient survival (PS), acute cardiac and renal rejection and renal graft survival (rGS). The adjusted risk of death was 44% lower with SHK compared to HTA. Over half of SHK were performed in cases where pretransplant dialysis was not initiated. In these cases, there was no significant difference in the risk of death between SHK and HTA (HR 1.01; 95% CI 0.67-1.50). Recipients of SHK had worse 1-year rGS and PS and had a higher relative risk of overall renal graft loss compared to DDKT recipients. One-year rates of cardiac (14.5%) and renal (6.5%) rejection were lower in SHK compared to HTA and DDKT, respectively. Recipients of SHK had a lower adjusted risk of death compared to HTA recipients, particularly in patients who required pretransplant dialysis. These data suggest that SHK should be considered in heart transplant candidates with renal failure requiring dialysis, whereas the utility of SHK in cases of renal failure not requiring dialysis warrants further study.