Beyond endoscopic mucosal healing in UC: histological remission better predicts corticosteroid use and hospitalisation over 6 years of follow-up.

Background: Endoscopic mucosal healing is an established treatment target for UC, yet the value of achieving histological remission remains unclear.

Aims: To evaluate histological remission compared to endoscopic mucosal healing for predicting patient outcomes in UC.

Methods: Blinded assessment of endoscopic and histological measures of disease activity was performed on patients with established UC at baseline.

Clip closure versus endoscopic suturing versus thoracoscopic repair of an iatrogenic esophageal perforation: a randomized, comparative, long-term survival study in a porcine model (with videos).

Background: Esophageal full-thickness wall repair is an important but unsolved issue in endoscopy. It is unknown how well endoscopic clip closure (ECC) and endoscopic closure with suturing (ECS) perform compared with the criterion standard of thoracoscopic closure (TC).

Objective: Comparison of technical success, feasibility, long-term patency, complications, and histological quality of the different closure techniques (ECC, ECS, TC) for esophageal perforations.

Bacterial community diversity in cultures derived from healthy and inflamed ileal pouches after restorative proctocolectomy.

Background: Pouchitis is believed to occur as a reaction to dysbiosis. In this study we assessed differences between mucosal bacterial communities cultured from noninflamed and inflamed ileal pouches.

Methods: Thirty-two ileal pouch patients, 22 with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 10 with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), underwent symptomatic, endoscopic, and histological assessment.

Feasibility and safety of endoscopic full-thickness esophageal wall resection and defect closure: a prospective long-term survival animal study.

Background: The first experiences with endoscopic closure of esophageal perforations in animal survival studies encouraged us to extend these procedures to full-thickness resections of pieces of the esophageal wall (FTEW).

Objective: To learn the feasibility, safety, and long-term effects of FTEW removal and defect closure.

Design: Feasibility animal study.

Cytomegalovirus ileitis associated with goblet cell carcinoid tumour of the appendix.

We report a female patient with cytomegalovirus (CMV) terminal ileitis and CMV viraemia, associated with a metastatic goblet cell carcinoid (GCC) tumour of the appendix. She was treated with ileocaecal resection followed by ganciclovir. We highlight the importance of vigilant histopathological assessment and discuss the existing literature on gastrointestinal CMV infection in immunocompetent patients.

The spectrum of WRN mutations in Werner syndrome patients.

The International Registry of Werner syndrome (www.wernersyndrome.org) has been providing molecular diagnosis of the Werner syndrome (WS) for the past decade.

Rheumatoid-like nodules in the spleen: new extraintestinal manifestation of Crohn's disease?

A 26-year-old, HLA-B27 positive man with steroid dependent Crohn's disease presented with abdominal lymphadenopathy and multiple abscess-like masses in the spleen and liver 2 years after the initial diagnosis. A biopsy of one of the liver lesions showed epitheloid cell granuloma, no microorganisms were detected despite intensive investigations. The liver lesions and the lymphadenopathy repeatedly disappeared completely in response to prednisolone pulse therapy while the lesions in the spleen remained practically unchanged.

CDC4 mutations occur in a subset of colorectal cancers but are not predicted to cause loss of function and are not associated with chromosomal instability.

CDC4/FBXW7 is part of a ubiquitin ligase complex which targets molecules such as cyclin E, c-myc, and c-jun for destruction. CDC4 mutations occur in several cancer types and are best described in colorectal tumors. Knockout of CDC4 in vitro in colorectal cancer cells causes changes suggestive of chromosomal instability (CIN).

Tropheryma whipplei Infection of an acellular porcine heart valve bioprosthesis in a patient who did not have intestinal Whipple's disease.

Rare cases of culture-negative infective endocarditis are caused by Tropheryma whipplei, the uncommon bacterium of Whipple's disease. We evaluated an 80-year-old woman with valvular heart disease but without intestinal Whipple's disease. The diagnosis of aortic valve xenograft culture-negative infection with T.

Cultivation of Tropheryma whipplei from cerebrospinal fluid.

Whipple disease (WD) is a systemic disorder caused by the bacterium Tropheryma whipplei. Since the recognition of a bacterial etiology in 1961, many attempts have been made to cultivate this bacterium in vitro. It was eventually isolated, in 2000, from an infected heart valve, in coculture with human fibroblasts.

Sequencing and analysis of the genome of the Whipple's disease bacterium Tropheryma whipplei.

Background: Whipple's disease is a rare multisystem chronic infection, involving the intestinal tract as well as various other organs. The causative agent, Tropheryma whipplei, is a Gram-positive bacterium about which little is known. Our aim was to investigate the biology of this organism by generating and analysing the complete DNA sequence of its genome.

Transient total sleep loss in cerebral Whipple's disease: a longitudinal study.

A case with transient, almost complete sleep loss caused by cerebral manifestation of Whipple's disease (WD) is presented. Cerebral WD is rare and in most cases occurs after gastrointestinal infection. In our case, a progressive and finally almost complete sleep loss was the initial and predominant symptom.

Genetics of adenocarcinomas of the small intestine: frequent deletions at chromosome 18q and mutations of the SMAD4 gene.

The small intestinal mucosa makes up about 90% of the total surface of the gastrointestinal tract. However, adenocarcinomas arise rarely in this location. To elucidate genetic alterations underlying tumour development in the small intestine we investigated 17 sporadic adenocarcinomas.