Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Tissue Sampling for the Cytohistological Diagnosis of Focal Liver Lesions.

BACKGROUND: Focal liver lesions (FLL) often require cytohistological evaluation. Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS)-guided tissue acquisition (EUS-TA) is highly accurate in diagnosing pancreatic and gastrointestinal malignancies. The aim of our study was to evaluate the role of EUS-TA in the characterization of FLL. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of a prospective database of patients who underwent EUS-TA for the evaluation of FLL. Diagnostic yield, adverse events and factors associated with diagnostic yield were evaluated as endpoints. The effect of variables such as needle size, lesion size, rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE) and the use of cytological or histological needles were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 114 cases were included (mean age 68.05 ± 11.35 years, 64 male). A correct diagnosis was made using EUS-TA in 100 of the 114 cases (diagnostic yield of 88%). The EUS-TA of additional extrahepatic lesions during the same EUS procedure increased the diagnostic yield to 94%. No adverse events were reported. Multivariate analysis did not identify any factor influencing the diagnostic yield. CONCLUSIONS: EUS-TA is a highly accurate and safe technique for the differential diagnosis of FLL and could be considered as the primary approach in this setting.

Is Occupation a Risk Factor for Developing Inflammatory Bowel Disease? A Case-Control Study.

Background and aims: The role of occupation is uncertain in the onset of inflammatory bowel diseases. The aim of this study is to identify if there is a role of occupation in these diseases. Materials and methods: A case-control study with incident cases with inflammatory bowel diseases was designed. Cases and controls were recruited simultaneously and controls followed a sex and age frequency matching with cases. A detailed questionnaire was completed by all the participants. To analyze the results, a logistic regression was used. A subgroup analysis was performed for each inflammatory bowel disease. Results: A total of 141 patients with incident inflammatory bowel disease (80 ulcerative colitis, 55 Crohn's disease, and 6 unclassified colitis) and 114 controls were included. There were no statistically significant differences in type of work, working hours, contact with animals, or physical activity at work between inflammatory bowel disease patients and controls. After stratifying results according to type of IBD, there were no statistically significant differences either. Conclusions: There seems to be no risk for inflammatory bowel disease onset regarding the type of work, working hours, contact with animals, or sedentariness.

Quality of Tissue Samples Obtained by Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Liver Biopsy: A Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial.

INTRODUCTION: Liver biopsy (LB) remains essential for the diagnosis and staging of parenchymal liver diseases. Endoscopic ultrasound-guided LB (EUS-LB) has emerged as an attractive alternative to percutaneous and transjugular routes. We aimed at comparing the adequacy of samples obtained by EUS-LB with percutaneous LB. METHODS: A single-center, randomized, controlled clinical trial was designed. Patients undergoing LB were randomly assigned to EUS-LB or percutaneous LB groups. EUS-LB was performed with a 19-gauge Franseen core needle through a transduodenal and transgastric route. Percutaneous LB was performed with a 16-gauge Tru-Cut needle. The main outcome was the percentage of adequate samples obtained. Secondary outcomes were the percentage of accurate histologic diagnosis, number of complete portal tracts (CPT), total and longest specimen length (TSL and LSL), sample fragmentation, adverse events, and patients' satisfaction. An adequate specimen was defined as TSL ≥20 mm and including ≥11 CPT. RESULTS: Ninety patients were randomized (44 to EUS-LB and 46 to percutaneous LB) and included in the analysis. The percentage of adequate tissue samples was 32.6% and 70.4% for percutaneous LB and EUS-LB, respectively ( P < 0.001). A final histologic diagnosis was provided in all cases but one. TSL was longer after EUS-LB (23.5 vs 17.5 mm, P = 0.01), whereas the number of CPT was similar in both groups. Sample fragmentation occurred more often after EUS-LB ( P < 0.001). No differences in adverse events were found. Satisfaction reported with both procedures was high. DISCUSSION: EUS-LB is safe and accurate and may be considered an alternative to percutaneous LB for the evaluation of parenchymal liver diseases.

Optimal surgical timing after post-infarction ventricular septal rupture.

BACKGROUND: Ventricular septal rupture (VSR) following acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a dangerous condition. Surgical VSR closure is the definitive therapy, but there is controversy regarding the surgical timing and the bridging therapy between diagnosis and intervention. The objective of this study is to analyze the ideal time of surgical repair and to establish the contribution of mechanical circulatory support (MCS) devices on the prognosis. METHODS: We designed an observational, retrospective, multicenter study, selecting all consecutive patients with post-AMI VSR between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2018, with non-exclusion criteria. The main objective of this study was to analyze the optimal timing for surgical repair of post-AMI VSR. Secondary endpoints were to determine which factors could influence mortality in the patients of the surgical group. RESULTS: A total of 141 patients were included. We identified lower mortality rates with an odds ratio of 0.3 (0.1-0.9) in patients operated on from day 4 compared with the surgical mortality in the first 24 hours after VSR diagnosis. The use of MCS was more frequent in patients treated with surgery, particularly for intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP; 79.6% vs. 37.8%, p < 0.001), but also for veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO; 18.2% vs. 6.4%, p = 0.134). Total mortality was 91.5% for conservative management and 52.3% with surgical repair (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In our study, we observed that the lowest mortality rates in patients with surgical repair of post-AMI VSR were observed in patients operated on from day 4 after diagnosis of VSR, compared to earlier interventions.

Temporal trends in postinfarction ventricular septal rupture: the CIVIAM Registry.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Postinfarction ventricular septal rupture is a rare but severe complication of myocardial infarction with high mortality rates. Our goal was to analyze which factors could have an impact on mortality due to this entity over the past decade, including those related to mechanical circulatory support. METHODS: The CIVIAM registry is an observational, retrospective, multicenter study carried out in Spain. We designed a comparative analysis, focused on description of in-hospital management and in-hospital and 1-year total mortality as the primary endpoints, dividing the total observation time into 2 equal temporal periods (January 2008 to June2013 and July 2013 to December 2018). RESULTS: We included 120 consecutive patients. Total mortality during this period was 61.7% at 1-year follow-up. Patients in the second period were younger. One-year mortality was significantly reduced in the second period (75.6% vs 52.7%, P=.01), and this result was confirmed after adjustment by confounding factors (OR, 0.40; 95%CI, 0.17-0.98). Surgical repair was attempted in 58.7% vs 70.3%, (P=.194), and percutaneous closure in 8.7% and 6.8%, respectively (P=.476). Heart transplant was performed in 1 vs 5 patients (2.2% vs 6.8%, P=.405). The main difference in the clinical management between the 2 periods was the greater use of venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenatiom in the second half of the study period (4.4% vs 27%; P=.001). CONCLUSIONS: Postinfarction ventricular septal rupture still carries a very high mortality risk. There has been a progressive trend to increased support with venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenatiom and greater access to available corrective treatments, with higher survival rates.