Occurrence and risk factors for autoimmune thyroid disease in patients with atrophic body gastritis.

Purpose: To investigate the occurrence of and risk factors for autoimmune thyroid disease in atrophic body gastritis patients.

Methods: Cross-sectional study on 401 consecutive outpatients with atrophic body gastritis. Diagnostic work-up of thyroid disease was completed in 319 atrophic body gastritis patients (225 women, median age 55.

Long-term follow-up in atrophic body gastritis patients: atrophy and intestinal metaplasia are persistent lesions irrespective of Helicobacter pylori infection.

Background: Long-term outcome of atrophic body gastritis has not yet been defined.

Aim: To investigate at long-term follow-up the behaviour of atrophy and intestinal metaplasia and the occurrence of neoplastic lesions in atrophic body gastritis patients.

Methods: Overall 106 atrophic body gastritis patients with > or = 4-year follow-up were studied; 38 were Helicobacter pylori-positive at histology + serology and cured of infection (group A), 36 were positive at serology and not treated (group B) and 32 were H.

Azathioprine or methotrexate in the treatment of patients with steroid-dependent or steroid-resistant ulcerative colitis: results of an open-label study on efficacy and tolerability in inducing and maintaining remission.

Background: The role of azathioprine and methotrexate in inducing and maintaining remission in patients with ulcerative colitis is still controversial.

Aim: To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of these two drugs in a series of patients with steroid-dependent or steroid-resistant active ulcerative colitis.

Methods: Forty-two patients were treated with a daily dose of azathioprine (2 mg/kg) and, if intolerant or not responding, with methotrexate (12.

Expression of nerve growth factor-like polypeptides and immunoreactivity related to the two types of neurotrophin receptors in earthworm tissues.

Nerve growth factor (NGF) belongs by sequence homology to the neurotrophins, a family of proteins binding the same p75 receptor and closely related members of the Trk family of receptor tyrosine kinases. Fundamental in the vertebrate nervous system, neurotrophin signals have also been suggested as essential for relatively complex nervous systems occurring in invertebrate species that live longer than Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster. Mammalian neurotrophins have been found to influence invertebrate neuronal growth.

Efficacy of gluten-free diet alone on recovery from iron deficiency anemia in adult celiac patients.

Objective: Iron deficiency anemia has been reported as the most frequent extraintestinal symptom in adult celiac disease. Prospective studies on the effect of gluten-free diet on recovery from iron deficiency anemia are lacking. The aim of this study was to verify in adult patients with celiac disease the efficacy of and the time course of recovery from iron deficiency anemia by a gluten-free diet alone.