The value of fecal calprotectin as a marker of intestinal inflammation in patients with ulcerative colitis.

Background/aims: To assess intestinal inflammation, simple, inexpensive and objective tools are desirable in inflammatory bowel disease. This study aimed to evaluate fecal calprotectin as a marker of active disease in ulcerative colitis.

Materials And Methods: Sixty patients with a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis and 20 controls were recruited into the study.

ERCP experience in patients with choledochoduodenostomy: diagnostic findings and therapeutic management.

Background: Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), besides reducing the need for surgery in a wide spectrum of biliary disease, is increasingly be used for the treatment of biliary complications of surgery. In this paper, we review our experience with postoperative ERCPs required after biliary surgery with a special focus on side-to-side choledochoduodenostomy (CD).

Methods: The records of 70 patients with a history of CD who underwent ERCP from May 2000 to February 2006 were analyzed.

Mucocutaneous manifestations in inflammatory bowel disease.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and features of the major cutaneous manifestations (erythema nodosum [EN] and pyoderma gangrenosum [PG]) and to determine the associations between cutaneous manifestations and other extraintestinal manifestations in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Methods: The mucocutaneous manifestations of patients with IBD were studied between December 2002 and June 2007. All patients underwent a detailed whole body examination by a gastroenterologist and dermatologist.