Evidence for diagnosis of early chronic pancreatitis after three episodes of acute pancreatitis: a cross-sectional multicentre international study with experimental animal model.

Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is an end-stage disease with no specific therapy; therefore, an early diagnosis is of crucial importance. In this study, data from 1315 and 318 patients were analysed from acute pancreatitis (AP) and CP registries, respectively. The population from the AP registry was divided into AP (n = 983), recurrent AP (RAP, n = 270) and CP (n = 62) groups. The prevalence of CP in combination with AP, RAP2, RAP3, RAP4 and RAP5 + was 0%, 1%, 16%, 50% and 47%, respectively, suggesting that three or more episodes of AP is a strong risk factor for CP. Laboratory, imaging and clinical biomarkers highlighted that patients with RAP3 + do not show a significant difference between RAPs and CP. Data from CP registries showed 98% of patients had at least one AP and the average number of episodes was four. We mimicked the human RAPs in a mouse model and found that three or more episodes of AP cause early chronic-like morphological changes in the pancreas. We concluded that three or more attacks of AP with no morphological changes to the pancreas could be considered as early CP (ECP).The new diagnostic criteria for ECP allow the majority of CP patients to be diagnosed earlier. They can be used in hospitals with no additional costs in healthcare.

Romanian Guidelines for Nonpharmacological Therapy of IBS.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The nonpharmacological therapy in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is expanding rapidly. Practitioners and medical educators need to be aware of progress and changes in knowledge of this topic. The Romanian Society of Neurogastroenterology aimed to create guidelines based on best evidence on the use of nonpharmacological therapy in IBS. METHODS: A group of experts was constituted. This was divided in eleven subgroups dedicated to eleven categories of nonpharmacological therapy. The subgroups searched the literature and formulated statements and recommendations. These were submitted to vote in order to obtain consensus. RESULTS: The outcome of this activity is represented by the guidelines of the Romanian Society of Neurogastroenterology, presented in this paper. The recommendations are seen as complementary to the pharmacological therapy and are not intended to recommend avoiding pharmacological drugs. CONCLUSIONS: These guidelines were elaborated by a Delphi process and represent a useful tool for physicians managing patients with IBS.

Correlation of Metabolic Risk Factors with Sessile Serrated Lesions.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The importance of sessile serrated lesions (SSLs) in the pathogenesis of colorectal carcinoma has been recently established. These are supposed to cause the so-called "interval cancer", having a rapidly progressive growth and being difficult to detect and to obtain an endoscopic complete resection. We aimed to establish the most important metabolic risk factors for sessile serrated lesions. METHODS: We performed a retrospective case-control study, on a series of 2918 consecutive patients who underwent colonoscopy in Gastroenterology and Endoscopy Unit, County Clinical Emergency Hospital, Târgu-Mureș, Romania between 1 st of January 2015-31 th of December 2017. In order to evaluate the metabolic risk factors for polyps' development, enrolled participants were stratified in two groups, a study group, 33 patients with SSLs lesions, and a control group, 138 patients with adenomatous polyps, selected by systematic sampling for age and anatomical site. Independent variables investigated were: gender, smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, arterial hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperuricemia, nonalcoholic liver disease. RESULTS: For SSLs the most common encountered localization was the right colon in 30.55% of cases. By comparative bivariate analysis between SSLs group and control group, it was observed that hypertension (p=0.03, OR 2.33, 95 %CI 1.03-5.24), obesity (p=0.03, OR 2.61, 95 %CI 1.08-6.30), hyperuricemia (p=0.04, OR 2.72, 95 %CI 1.28-7.55), high cholesterol (p=0.002, OR 3.42; 95 %CI 1.48-7.87), and high triglycerides level (p=0.0006, OR 5.75; 95 %CI 1.92-17.2) were statistically associated with SSLs development. By multivariate analysis hypertension and hypertriglyceridemia retained statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that the highest prevalence of SSLs was in the right colon and hypertension and increased triglycerides levels were associated with the risk of SSLs development. These risk factors are easy to detect in clinical practice and may help identifying groups with high risk for colorectal cancer, where screening is recommended.

Statins and gastroduodenal endoscopic lesions: A case-control study.

Experimental studies showed a dose-dependent gastroprotective effect of statins on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug-induced endoscopic lesions, modulated by increasing endogenous nitric oxide and prostaglandin production.We investigated the influence of chronic treatment with statins on the occurrence of endoscopic lesions in patients referred for endoscopic evaluation, adjusted for the most important etiologic and risk factors for peptic ulcer disease and its complications.A consecutive series of 564 patients who underwent upper digestive endoscopy, stratified according to the severity of endoscopic lesions were recruited. Patients with statin therapy were included in the study group (n = 220), while patients without statins in the control group (n = 344). We correlate the influence of chronic statin therapy (at least 6 months) with factors including age up to 50 years, Helicobacter pylori infection, smoking and drinking habits, ulcer history, gastrotoxic drug consumption (low-dose aspirin [ASA], anticoagulants), and comorbidities.H pylori infection was more frequent in patients with mild/severe endoscopic lesions vs. no lesions, in both groups, but the difference was not statistically significant (P >.05). Male gender represented a risk factor (P <.01) for mild/severe endoscopic lesions only in the statin group. The estimated risk for developing mild/severe endoscopic lesions with ASA intake decreased from 6.26 to 3.40 (P <.01) when statin therapy was associated. Patients without statins and ischemic coronary artery disease (P <.01; odds ratio [OR] = 2.99; 95% confidence interval (CI):1.88-4.73), heart failure (P = .01; OR = 2.13; 95% CI:1.36-3.34), systemic atherosclerosis (P = .04; OR = 2.30; 95% CI:1.44-3.67) had a statistically significant increased risk for developing mild/severe endoscopic lesions in comparison with patients in the statin group. In multivariate regression analysis models, smoking (P <.01; OR = 2.69; 95% CI:1.73-4.16), ASA (P <.01; OR = 4.54; 95% CI:2.83-7.16), and coronary artery diseases (P = .01; OR = 1.80; 95% CI:1.15-2.82) were independent risk factors for mild/severe endoscopic lesions, while chronic statin therapy (P <.01; OR = 0.31; 95% CI:0.19-0.51) was associated with a protective effect in all models.The results of the present study support a certain protective role of chronic therapy with statins against endoscopic lesions, especially in ASA consumers or patients with cardiovascular diseases.