Severity and outcome of a first episode of idiopathic acute pancreatitis is not more severe than pancreatitis of other etiologies.

Background: With respect to severity and outcome of an index episode of idiopathic acute pancreatitis the current literature reports conflicting retrospective results. One reason might be the retrospective study design precluding in depth analysis resulting in mixed etiologies and combination of index episode versus recurrent idiopathic acute pancreatitis.

Methods: In this retrospective monocentric cohort study, we retrieved all patients with a first acute pancreatitis episode treated between 2005 and 2021 at the LMU University Hospital from our clinical information system based on the respective ICD-10 codes.

Severity of Gallstone-, Sludge-, or Microlithiasis-Induced Pancreatitis-All of the Same?

Background/aim: Severity of microlithiasis- and sludge-induced pancreatitis in comparison to gallstone-induced pancreatitis has never been studied for a lack of definition.

Materials And Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, 263 patients with acute biliary pancreatitis treated at a tertiary care center from 2005 to 2021 were stratified according to the recent consensus definition for microlithiasis and sludge. The gallstone-pancreatitis cohort was compared to microlithiasis, sludge, and suspected stone passage pancreatitis cohorts in terms of pancreatitis outcome, liver function, and endosonography/endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography results using one-way analysis of variance and χ 2 test.

Sunitinib induced colitis manifesting as invasive diarrhea in a patient with renal cell carcinoma.

Introduction: Sunitinib is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that binds to vascular endothelial factor receptor currently used for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma, as well as for several other conditions such as gastrointestinal stromal tumors and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. We present a patient with invasive diarrhea who was treated with sunitinib for metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Case Report: Drug induced colitis was confirmed with colonoscopy from histopathological specimens.

Pembrolizumab-induced immune-mediated fatal colitis with concurrent giardia infection.

Advancements in medicine have enabled the use of monoclonal antibodies in the field of oncology. However, the new adverse effects of immunotherapeutic agents are still being reported. We present the first case of pembrolizumab-induced fatal colitis with concurrent Giardia infection in a patient with metastatic ovarian cancer.

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided liver biopsy using a 20-gauge fine needle biopsy needle with the wet-heparinized suction technique.

Objectives: The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the histological adequacy of the liver tissue specimens obtained with a 20-gauge fine-needle biopsy needle and the secondary aim was to test the safety endoscopic ultrasound-guided liver biopsy with a 20-gauge fine-needle biopsy needle with the wet-heparinized suction technique.

Methods: Forty patients who underwent endoscopic ultrasound-guided liver biopsy were included in the study. A 20-gauge fine-needle biopsy needle was used with the wet-heparinized suction technique to make one pass each from the left and the right lobe.

Mechanisms of T-Cell Exhaustion in Pancreatic Cancer.

T-cell exhaustion is a phenomenon that represents the dysfunctional state of T cells in chronic infections and cancer and is closely associated with poor prognosis in many cancers. The endogenous T-cell immunity and genetically edited cell therapies (CAR-T) failed to prevent tumor immune evasion. The effector T-cell activity is perturbed by an imbalance between inhibitory and stimulatory signals causing a reprogramming in metabolism and the high levels of multiple inhibitory receptors like programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1), cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4), T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-containing protein 3 (TIM-3), and Lymphocyte-activation gene 3 (Lag-3).