Excellent outcome in patients with primary biliary cholangitis in Northwest Italy followed up for up to 30 years.

Objective: Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a rare chronic autoimmune cholangiopathy, characterized by a variable course and response to treatment. We aimed to describe long-term outcomes of PBC patients referred to three academic centres in Northwest Italy.

Methods: This is an ambispective cohort study of PBC patients (retrospective component: diagnosis before 1 January 2019; prospective component: thereafter), including 302 patients: 101 (33%) followed up in Novara, 86 (28%) in Turin, 115 (38%) in Genoa.

Rifabutin-Based Rescue Therapy for Eradication: A Long-Term Prospective Study in a Large Cohort of Difficult-to-Treat Patients.

The most commonly used regimens fail to eradicate () infection in 5⁻10% of patients. Those not cured with treatments based on amoxicillin, clarithromycin, nitroimidazoles, fluoroquinolones, bismuth or tetracycline have no other conventional options thereafter. In this prospective long-term monocentric study, patients who failed to eradicate following treatment with all conventional antibiotics were included.

Management of primary biliary cholangitis prior to obeticholic acid availability.

Background: Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is an autoimmune cholestatic liver disease with unknown etiology. The prognosis of patients affected by PBC is heterogeneous, with a relevant improvement achieved after the introduction of ursodeoxycolic acid (UDCA). Since in the last years obeticholic acid (OCA) has been approved for the combined treatment of PBC, in patient non-responders to UDCA or as monotherapy in those intolerant to UDCA, we evaluated the response to UDCA in a cohort of patients with PBC managed in a specialistic setting.

Gastroenterology today: between certainties and news.

This special article reports on two crucial issues discussed during a meeting. The first was the updated management of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection.

Adrenal function and microbial DNA in noninfected cirrhotic patients with ascites: Relationship and effect on survival.

Background: There are few data on clinical relevance of adrenal dysfunction and its relationship with occult microbial DNA in noninfected haemodynamically stable cirrhotic patients with ascites.

Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate prognostic role of adrenal dysfunction, microbial DNA, and their relationship.

Methods: Adrenal function was assessed in 93 consecutive patients following a corticotropin stimulation test.

Clinical impact of A/H1/N1/09 influenza in patients with cirrhosis: experience from a nosocomial cluster of infection.

A/H1N1/09 influenza is associated with a high risk of complications in patients with chronic diseases, but data on morbidity and mortality in patients with cirrhosis are limited. A cluster of A/H1N1/09 infection in 48 patients admitted to a Gastro-Hepatology Unit is reported. Nosocomial spread, clinical outcome, and viral characteristics of A/H1N1/09 strains from a study group of 48 inpatients (21 and 27 with and without cirrhosis, respectively) were compared with those from a control group of 44 outpatients with mild influenza-like illness and without cirrhosis.

Prevention of paracentesis-induced circulatory dysfunction in cirrhosis: standard vs half albumin doses. A prospective, randomized, unblinded pilot study.

Background: Paracentesis-induced circulatory dysfunction is a well-known complication of large volume paracentesis. Albumin infusion (8g of albumin/L of ascites removed) is effective in preventing it, but high costs and scant availability limit its use.

Aim: To compare standard vs half albumin doses.

Digestive endoscopy is not a major risk factor for transmitting hepatitis C virus.

Background: The potential role of digestive endoscopy as a mode for transmission of hepatitis C virus (HCV) is controversial.

Objective: To evaluate the role of digestive endoscopy in transmitting HCV by comparing the incidence of HCV infection in a cohort of patients undergoing endoscopy and in a cohort of blood donors.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

High-grade B-cell lymphoma arising in mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue of the duodenum.

Duodenal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma is a rare neoplasm. We report a case of a 70-year-old man with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma located in the descending duodenum that was not associated with Helicobacter pylori infection of the stomach. A surgical resection due to obstruction of the bowel lumen above the ligament of Treitz was performed.