Long-term follow-up of patients with endoscopic treatment of sporadic adenomas of the papilla of vater.

Background And Study Aims: Knowledge about the long-term outcome of patients after endoscopic treatment of ampullary adenomas remains poor, although surgical series have suggested that the initial endoscopic evaluation of these diseases might overlook cancer foci developed in adenomas. The aim of this study was to evaluate retrospectively the long-term outcome in patients with ampullary adenomas treated endoscopically, with a focus on the possible development of cancer.

Patients And Methods: The study included 24 patients (median age 59 years, range 34 - 84) with macroscopically benign adenomas of the papilla of Vater treated using mainly laser photodestruction between 1983 and 1996.

Long-term survival after photodynamic therapy for esophageal cancer.

Background/aims: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been adapted to the endoscopic treatment of digestive cancer, but its indications and efficacy remain uncertain. The aim of this study was to assess its feasibility in the curative treatment of small esophageal tumors.

Methods: From 1983 to 1991, PDT was used to treat 123 patients with esophageal cancer who were recommended for nonsurgical treatment of squamous cell carcinoma (n = 104) and adenocarcinoma (n = 19).

Endoscopic ultrasonography in the preoperative staging of esophageal cancer.

Endoscopic ultrasonography is the best available method for the locoregional staging of esophageal carcinoma. Its main limitations are represented by a) tumor stenosis, b) distinguishing between malignant and benign lymph nodes, and c) distinguishing between mucosal and submucosal cancer. In untreated esophageal carcinoma, three main groups can be distinguished, based on clinical and morphological evaluation (endoscopy, abdominal ultrasound and CT).

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma associated with gastric adenocarcinoma.

Adenocarcinoma of the stomach occurred in six of 425 consecutive patients with esophageal squamous cell cancer. In two cases, the gastric cancer, which was recognized at 17 and 29 months, respectively, after the nonsurgical treatment of the esophageal tumor, was treated by surgical resection. In three cases, the tumors which were diagnosed simultaneously, were treated by surgery (one case) resection of the gastric tumor and nonsurgical therapy for the esophageal tumor (one case), and nonsurgical therapy for both tumors (one case).

Ontogeny of vasoactive intestinal peptide in the human fetal digestive tract.

Immunocytochemistry and radioimmunoassay were used to assess the appearance time and tissue distribution of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) in the digestive tract of the human fetus. By radioimmunoassay, VIP was measurable from 10 weeks of gestation. The peptide was abundantly distributed in the jejuno-ileum and colon, where the tissue peptide concentration rose from 9-14 weeks of gestation (18.

Plasma somatostatin concentration in the preterm neonate.

Plasma somatostatin concentration was measured by radioimmunoassay in 26 preterm neonates (mean gestational age 34 weeks). None were seriously ill and they were all fed with breast-milk 12 h after birth. In a longitudinal study the concentrations were (mean +/- SEM): 21 +/- 2 pmol/l (n = 8) at 2-8 h of age, 24 +/- 2 pmol/l (n = 11) at the age of 2 days and 25 +/- 2 pmol/l (n = 15) at the age of 8 days.

Effects of somatostatin-14 and somatostatin-28 on bombesin-stimulated release of gastrin, insulin, and glucagon in the dog.

The effects of somatostatin-14 (S14) and somatostatin-28 (S28), a novel intestinal peptide containing somatostatin tetradecapeptide in its C-terminal position, on the bombesin-stimulated release of gastrin, insulin, and glucagon were tested. On iv infusion of bombesin, the increase in the level of glucagon was seen to be twice that of gastrin, and the insulin increase was 8 times that of gastrin. Plasma concentrations of somatostatin were not modified.

Relationship between intravenous ethanol, alcohol-induced inhibition of pancreatic secretion and plasma concentration of immunoreactive pancreatic polypeptide, vasoactive intestinal peptide, and somatostatin in man.

We have studied in seven men, consuming less than 50 g alcohol daily, the effect of intravenous (i.v.) ethanol on (a) hormonally (secretin + CCK PZ) submaximally stimulated pancreatic secretion and (b) blood levels of pancreatic polypeptide (PP), vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and somatostatin.

Calcitonin-producing pancreatic somatostatinoma.

A pancreatic somatostatinoma metastatized to the liver was detected in a 70-yr-old woman presenting with chronic diarrhea, steatorrhea, pancreatic insufficiency, diabetes mellitus, and achlorhydria. At immunocytochemistry, most tumor cells stored both somatostatin and calcitoninlike substances. Chromatography of acid extracts of the tumor on G50 Sephadex gave two distinct peaks coeluting with cyclic ovine somatostatin and human calcitonin, respectively, thus ruling out the hypothesis of a single cross-reacting molecule synthetized by the neoplastic cells.

Ontogeny of somatostatin in the human gastro-intestinal tract, endocrine pancreas and hypothalamus.

The appearance, time and distribution of somatostatin in the pancreas, gastro-intestinal tract and hypothalamus were studied comparatively in human foetuses aged 6--32 weeks, by immuno-cytochemistry and radioimmunoassay. Somatostatin was detected by both methods in all segments including the colon. The first cells were observed, and somatostatin was present in measurable amounts at 8 weeks in pancreas, duodenum and intestine, while the peptide was detected at 12 weeks in antrum and colon, at 14 weeks in fundus, and at 16 weeks in hypothalamus.

Somatostatin in mucosa of stomach and duodenum in gastroduodenal disease.

In order to study the distribution of somatostatin in the upper digestive tract in man, biopsies were taken through endoscopy or at surgery from the fundus, antrum, and duodenal bulb in 15 subjects with no gastroduodenal lesion, 12 patients with severe antral and/or fundic atrophy in the sampling area, 28 patients with an active duodenal ulcer, and 14 patients with a nonmalignant gastric ulcer. The specimens were extracted in 2 N acetic acid and tested for somatostatin content with a specific radioimmunoassay. In the control subjects, the somatostatin concentration (nanograms per milligram of wet weight) was 0.

Gastric clearance of serum albumin in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis.

Gastric albumin clearance studies were carried out in 26 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis and in 10 control subjects. The mean clearance was significantly higher in patients than in control subjects. An increased protein gastric loss in cirrhotic patients was observed only in presence of gastritis.

[Purification of human gastric glycoprotein and a study of its carbohydrate components (author's transl)].

Mucus was extracted from human gastric mucosa by homogenization in distilled water. The crude extract was purified from plasma, salivary and tissue contaminants by different steps involving chromatography on Sepharose 6B, Sepharose 2B and immunosorbents. The native glycoprotein so prepared was found to be immunologically pure; it migrated as a single band in acrylamide agarose gel electrophoresis at pH 8.