Publications by authors named "Bulajic M"

Background And Aims: Gastric restriction techniques have recently emerged as minimally invasive bariatric procedures. Endoscopic sutured gastroplasty (ESG) with the Endomina (Endo Tools Therapeutics, Gosselies, Belgium) triangulation platform proved to be safe and effective for the treatment of class I and II obesity in prospective studies. In this registry, we aimed to further assess on a larger scale the safety and efficacy of the procedure in routine practice with a dedicated device.

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(CMV) infection is usually asymptomatic or causes a mild mononucleosis-like syndrome, whereas severe symptoms are rarely reported. We report a case of a 70-year-old woman who was admitted to our center because of severe clinical presentation with anorexia, epigastric pain, nausea, postprandial vomiting, and significant weight loss. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy with biopsies showed ulcerative chronic gastritis with scattered large cells with inclusion bodies.

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Article Synopsis
  • Lumen-apposing metal stents (LAMSs) are crucial for ultrasonography-guided gallbladder drainage (EUS-GBD) in patients who are not fit for surgery, especially those with acute cholecystitis.
  • A retrospective study of 54 patients showed a 100% technical success rate for LAMS placement, with 76.67% of patients achieving clinical success and only 5.6% experiencing adverse events.
  • Patients typically left the hospital after about 5 days, highlighting EUS-GBD as a safe and effective option for high-risk surgical patients.
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Introduction: Gastric cancer (GC) is an aggressive and clinically heterogeneous tumor, and better risk stratification of lymph node metastasis (LNM) could lead to personalized treatments. The role of radiomics in the prediction of nodal involvement in GC has not yet been systematically assessed. This study aims to assess the role of radiomics in the prediction of LNM in GC.

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Background: Mesalamine is one of the most-used drugs in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), especially ulcerative colitis. Regulatory agencies have listed mesalamine as an unsafe drug in subjects with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency based on the risk of hemolysis, although scientific evidence is lacking. The occurrence of acute and/or chronic hemolytic anemia in IBD patients with G6PD deficiency exposed to mesalamine was evaluated.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study evaluates the effectiveness of endoscopic ultrasound-guided gallbladder drainage (EUS-GBD) using a new electrocautery lumen apposing metal stent (EC-LAMS) as a first-line treatment for patients with distal malignant biliary obstruction (DMBO) who may not be suitable for surgery.
  • Out of 37 patients, the technical success of EC-LAMS placement was 100%, with a clinical success rate showing significant bilirubin reduction, although 10.8% experienced some adverse events, like bleeding and impaction.
  • The findings suggest that EUS-GBD with EC-LAMS is a viable palliative option for managing malignant jaundice, with
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Esophagogastric junction (EGJ) carcinoma represents a specific site of disease, given the opportunities for multimodal clinical care and management and the possibilities of combined treatments. It encompasses various clinical subgroups of disease that are heterogeneous and deserve different treatments; therefore, the guidelines have progressively evolved over time, considering the evidence provided by clinical trials. The aim of this narrative review was to summarize the main evidence, which orientates the current guidelines, and to collect the main ongoing studies to address existing gray areas.

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 Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) represents the gold standard for jaundice palliation in malignant biliary obstruction (MBO) patients. Biliary drainage using electrocautery lumen apposing metal stent (EC-LAMS) is currently a well-established procedure when ERCP fails. We aimed to assess the technical and clinical success of a new EC-LAMS as the first approach to the palliation of malignant jaundice due to MBO in patients unfit for surgery.

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Precise gene expression is crucial for embryonic patterning. Intra- transcription factor binding and distal enhancer elements have emerged as the major regulatory modules controlling gene expression. However, quantifying their relative contributions has remained elusive.

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Background And Aims: A hybrid technique may be a reasonable compromise to make endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) more reliable for lesions ≥ 20 mm and a good way of approaching to endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of a novel hybrid EMR technique, triple-anchoring EMR (T-EMR) for colorectal lesions 20-30 mm.

Methods: Fifteen patients have been prospectively enrolled to T-EMR from December 2019 to April 2020 in two Endoscopy Units: Policlinico A.

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Gastric duplication cysts are rare congenital malformation with a potential neoplastic progression and they may represent a challenge in differential diagnosis with exophytic pancreatic cyst neoplasm. We describe a case of a 38-year old man, complaining of recurrent epigastric pain due to a large abdominal mass, referred to our Hospital for EUS evaluation. Differential diagnosis was between gastric duplication cyst and exophytic pancreatic cyst because of FNA pointed out amylase 1280 UI/L and CEA 593.

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Weight regain following primary bariatric surgery occurs in a significant proportion of patients and is attributed to epidemiological, anatomical and metabolic factors. Surgical revision of these patients has significant risks and limited benefits. Endoscopic revisions that reduce gastric pouch size and diameter of the gastrojejunal anastomosis may offer an effective, safe, less invasive and even reproducible treatment.

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Polycomb repressive complexes (PRCs) 1 and 2 maintain stable cellular memories of early fate decisions by establishing heritable patterns of gene repression. PRCs repress transcription through histone modifications and chromatin compaction, but their roles in neuronal subtype diversification are poorly defined. We found that PRC1 is essential for the specification of segmentally restricted spinal motor neuron (MN) subtypes, while PRC2 activity is dispensable to maintain MN positional identities during terminal differentiation.

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Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is a complex procedure with a relatively high rate of adverse events. Data on training of operators and fulfillment of quality indicators in Italy are scarce. The goal of this study was to assess the overall quality of ERCP in Italy compared to international standards.

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Video 1Technical feasibility, safety, and efficacy of a novel endoscopic approach to treating weight regain after open vertical-banded gastroplasty using an endoscopic suturing device.

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Crohn's disease (CD) of the pouch and chronic pouchitis represent the most common long-term complications of total proctocolectomy and ileal pouch anal anastomosis (IPAA) for refractory ulcerative colitis (UC). These conditions are treated with multiple agents, including antibiotics, immunomodulators, and biologics. Among the latter, ustekinumab is approved for both CD and UC.

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Design and large-scale synthesis of DNA has been applied to the functional study of viral and microbial genomes. New and expanded technology development is required to unlock the transformative potential of such bottom-up approaches to the study of larger mammalian genomes. Two major challenges include assembling and delivering long DNA sequences.

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Background: We conducted a systematic review in order to summarize the available data on pancreatitis associated with viral hepatitis.

Methods: A comprehensive literature search of Medline, Scopus and ISI Web of Science databases was conducted and papers eligible for the inclusion identified.

Results: In total, 46 studies reporting data on 73 patients were included in the analysis.

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Although Hox genes encode for conserved transcription factors (TFs), they are further divided into anterior, central and posterior groups based on their DNA-binding domain similarity. The posterior Hox group expanded in the deuterostome clade and patterns caudal and distal structures. We aimed to address how similar Hox TFs diverge to induce different positional identities.

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Except for pancreas divisum (PD), the prevalence of anatomic variants of the main pancreatic duct (MPD) seems to be insufficiently investigated. To date, their role in the occurrence of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency (PEI) and morphological changes suggestive of chronic pancreatitis (CP) has remained unclear. A systematic review was performed, searching MEDLINE and Web of Science, limited to articles published between 1960 and 1 June 2019.

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Introduction: Although pancreatic tuberculosis (TB) is traditionally considered to be a rare clinical entity, in recent times, an increase in the number of reports of pancreatic TB has been noted. We conducted a systematic review in order to summarise currently available data on pancreatic TB.

Methods: A comprehensive literature search of Medline, Scopus and ISI Web of Science databases was conducted in order to identify papers reporting cases of pancreatic TB.

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Introduction And Aims: Patients treated with intragastric balloon (IGB) may benefit from treatment and follow-up by a multidisciplinary team, where the dietician is considered the only essential professional besides the endoscopist. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of dietician support and behavioral therapy in terms of weight loss in patients concomitantly treated with IGB while the device is in situ.

Methods: Patients with IGB in situ, in period 2005-2018, were invited to undergo a dietician check-up (DC) every 1.

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