Successful endoscopic injection sclerotherapy of a bleeding duodenal varix.

Bleeding from duodenal varices is an unusual event. We report the case of a 50-yr-old man with portal hypertension due to alcoholic cirrhosis who presented with upper gastrointestinal bleeding and encephalopathy. Emergent endoscopy revealed an actively bleeding duodenal varix.

Polyamine levels, ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity, and ODC-mRNA expression in normal and cancerous human colonocytes.

Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) and polyamines (putrescine, spermidine, and spermine) are crucial for cell proliferation. Recently, elevated ODC activity and polyamine levels have been suggested as biological markers for human colon cancer. In this study, we measured ODC activity and the levels of polyamines (putrescine, spermidine, spermine, and cadaverine) and acetyl-putrescine in human colonocytes isolated from cancerous areas compared to the adjacent normal colon tissue.