Intestinal ultrasound for intestinal Behçet disease reflects endoscopic activity and histopathological findings.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Intestinal Behçet disease is typically associated with ileocecal punched-out ulcers and significant morbidity and mortality. Intestinal ultrasound is a noninvasive imaging technique for disease monitoring. However, no previous reports have compared intestinal ultrasound with endoscopic ulcer activity or histopathological findings for intestinal Behçet disease. We evaluated the usefulness of intestinal ultrasound for assessing the activity of ileocecal ulcers in intestinal Behçet disease. METHODS: We retrospectively compared intestinal ultrasound findings with 73 corresponding endoscopic images and 6 resected specimens. The intestinal ultrasound findings were assessed for 7 parameters (bowel wall thickness, vascularity [evaluated using the modified Limberg score with color Doppler], bowel wall stratification, white-plaque sign [strong hyperechogenic lines or spots], mesenteric lymphadenopathy, extramural phlegmons, and fistulas), and endoscopic ulcer activity was classified into active, healing, and scar stages. Histopathological findings were evaluated by consensus among experienced pathologists. RESULTS: Bowel wall thickness (P< 0.001), vascularity (P< 0.001), loss of bowel wall stratification (P= 0.015), and white-plague sign (P= 0.013) were significantly exacerbated in the endoscopic active ulcer stage. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed that a bowel wall thickness of > 5.5 mm (sensitivity 89.7%, specificity 85.3%) was potentially useful for detecting active lesions. When compared with histopathological findings, an increase in bowel wall thickness reflected the ulcer marginal ridge, and the white-plaque sign reflected the ulcer bottom. CONCLUSIONS: Intestinal ultrasound is useful for monitoring intestinal ulcer activity in intestinal Behçet disease.

[Comparison of Tosoh TRCRapid M.TB assay by transcription-reverse transcription concerted reaction (TRC) with Roche COBAS AMPLICOR assay by PCR and with culture for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex].

The aim of this study was to test the performance of a new reagent kit Tosoh TRCRapid M.TB using by transcription-reverse transcription concerted reaction(TRC) for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) by comparing both its sensitivity and specificity for detecting MTC with those of Roche COBAS AMPLICOR Mycobacterium assay using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and comparing with culture. TRC is a novel method, that is rapid and provides real-time monitoring of the isothermal sequence of RNA amplification without any post-amplification procedure, and the resulting detection time was about 30 min. A total of 157 clinical samples from patients were tested. Of the 74 MTC culture-positive samples, TRC was positive in 59(sensitivity, 80%), whereas PCR was positive in 47(sensitivity, 63%). The 26 samples that were positive for Mycobacteria other than tuberculosis (MOTT) were negative by TRCRapid M.TB assay, and the 50 samples that were negative for smear, culture and Roche PCR were also negative by TRCRapid M.TB. The percent agreement between Tosoh TRCRapid M.TB and Roche COBAS AMPLICOR was 90% (142 of 157 samples). These results indicate that Tosoh TRCRapid M.TB may be more useful than Roche COBAS AMPLICOR for detecting MTC because of its higher sensitivity and shorter detection time.

[Clinical significance of Cobas Amplicor HCV Monitor test v 2.0 for quantifying a wide range of serum HCV-RNA in patients with chronic hepatitis C].

Recently, we evaluated the clinical significance of a new assay, the semi-automated Cobas Amplicor HCV Monitor test v 2.0 (Roche, Cobas-HIGH-RANGE assay), for quantifying serum hepatitis C virus RNA throughout a wider range than the traditional assay, Amplicor GT HCV Monitor test v 2.0 (GT-ORIGINAL assay). We compared the results of the Cobas-HIGH-RANGE assay with results of the GT-ORIGINAL assay. This study was conducted on serum from 91 patients with chronic hepatitis C at the Gastroenterological Center, Yokohama City University Medical Center. The percent coefficient of variation (CV) for the within-run and between-run reproducibility of the Cobas-HIGH-RANGE assay ranged from 0.7 to 2.3% and from 1.3 to 2.0%, respectively. The Cobas-HIGH-RANGE assay exhibited a linear range extending from 5 to 5000 KIU/ml. The values for all 17 samples determined as less than 0.5 KIU/ml by the GT-ORIGINAL assay were also determined as less than 5 KIU/ml by the Cobas-HIGH-RANGE assay. For the 48 samples with values of 0.5 to 850 KIU/ml determined by the GT-ORIGINAL assay, the values obtained by these two assay methods were significantly correlated (r2 = 0.9117, y = 1.0667x-0.0801, p < 0.001), but the values of HCV-RNA determined by the Cobas-HIGH-RANGE assay were significantly (p < 0.05) higher than those determined by the GT-ORIGINAL assay. Consequently, these data indicate that the HIGH-RANGE assay is a useful alternative assay method for measurement of HCV-RNA instead of the ORIGINAL assay, and that the HIGH-RANGE assay could be a useful tool for monitoring the efficacy of antiviral treatment.