Unusual gastric mucosal infiltration by a medullary thyroid carcinoma: a case report.

Background: Medullary thyroid carcinoma accounts for approximately 1 to 2 % of all thyroid carcinoma cases. The most common route of dissemination is to locoregional lymph nodes. Distant metastases commonly affect bones, lungs, and liver.

Neutrophil CD177 (NB1 gp, HNA-2a) expression is increased in severe bacterial infections and polycythaemia vera.

The NB1 glycoprotein (CD177, HNA-2a antigen) is exclusively expressed on human neutrophils. As the clinical significance of CD177 expression is unknown, we investigated its expression in healthy individuals before and after stimulation with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, viral hepatitis, severe bacterial infections and polycythaemia vera. Expression was quantitatively determined by flow cytometry and by real time polymerase chain reaction.

Effect of psychotherapy and relaxation on the psychosocial and somatic course of Crohn's disease: main results of the German Prospective Multicenter Psychotherapy Treatment study on Crohn's Disease.

Objective: Few studies have been published on the influence of psychotherapy on the physical and psychosocial course of Crohn's disease (CD).

Methods: The present study, a prospective, randomized multicenter investigation conducted with 108 of 488 consecutive CD patients, was designed to investigate the influence of short-term psychodynamic therapy and relaxation in addition to a standardized glucocorticoid therapy on the somatic course of the disease as well as on patient psychosocial status. Based on the same standardized somatic treatment, the psychotherapy and control groups were compared after a 1-year treatment period and a follow-up of another year with regard to somatic course and psychosocial situation.

Impact of migration on Helicobacter pylori seroprevalence in the offspring of Turkish immigrants in Germany.

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection rates differ markedly between distinct populations. Consistent with previous findings of high seroprevalences in less developed countries, Turkish people have been reported to constitute a high-risk population.

Thyroid function, thyroid immunoglobulin status, and urinary iodine excretion after enteral contrast-agent administration by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography.

Background And Study Aims: The aim of this study was to examine the occurrence of clinically relevant changes in thyroid function after enteral administration of contrast agent by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP).

Patients And Methods: In this study 70 patients without a history of thyroid disease who had not recently undergone thyroid-specific or thyroid-influencing therapy were examined. Patients were examined on two or three occasions using a standardized questionnaire regarding symptoms of hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism.

Octreotide in the prevention of pancreatic damage induced by endoscopic sphincterotomy.

Somatostatin and the long acting analogue octreotide have been proposed as a therapeutic agent in acute pancreatitis and for the prophylaxis of pancreatic damage by ERCP and EST for their ability to reduce exocrine pancreatic secretion. However, clinical trials could not show significant beneficial effects in acute pancreatitis and ERCP. In patients undergoing EST, data remained controversial, most authors describing positive effects of prophylaxis.

Frequency of pancreatitis after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography with iopromid or iotrolan: a randomized trial.

Blood isotone contrast media is considered to be less toxic to vascular and pancreatic duct endothelium than high-osmolar contrast media. In this study we assessed the impact of a low-osmolar contrast agent compared with a blood isotone product on pancreatic damage induced by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and endoscopic retrograde sphincterotomy (EST). In a prospective trial 42 consecutive ERCP/EST patients were randomized to receive either iopromid, a low-osmolar non-ionic contrast agent (770 mosmol/kg H2O), or iotrolan, a blood-isotone non-ionic product (320 mosmol/kg H2O).

Determination of elastase-1 serum levels in post ERCP/EST pancreatic damage.

Recently an ELISA using specific antibodies to detect elastase-1 in serum has become available. Earlier studies using a radioimmunoassay reported a prolonged elevation of serum elastase as compared to other pancreatic enzymes in acute pancreatitis. The aim of the present study was to compare the changes of serum levels of ELISA-elastase-1, lipase and amylase in acute pancreatic damage following ERCP.

[Purulent pericarditis as an initial manifestation of esophageal carcinoma].

History And Admission Findings: A 71-year old heavy smoker was admitted because of chest pain unrelated to physical activity, radiating into the left arm and neck as well as exertional dyspnoea and dizziness. Physical examination was unremarkable except for mild venous congestion over the upper part of the body. Myocardial infarction was excluded.

Whipple's disease - current status of diagnostics and therapy.

Whipple's disease is a multisystemic infectious disease whose pathogen, a gram-unstable actinomycete, has been characterized in the meantime by molecular-biological techniques (polymerase chain reaction). This infectious disease which was firstly described in 1907 by G.H.

[A rare combination of pheochromocytoma ans somatostatin-rich neuroendocrine tumor of Vater's papilla (carcinoid) in a patient with von Recklinghausen neurofibromatosis].

A 74-year-old male suffering from Recklinghausen's fibromatosis (NvR) is reported. He presented with weight loss, cholestasis, endocrine and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. These symptoms were caused by a neuroendocrine tumor of the ampulla of Vater containing somatostatin.

Rapid spinal trabecular bone loss in female patients with ileitis terminalis Crohn and additional sacroiliac joint inflammation.

Patients with Crohn's disease are well known to have local and generalized osteopenia of varying degrees. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the additional involvement of the sacroiliac joint as an extraintestinal manifestation has an influence on bone turnover in female patients with Crohn's disease. Osteocalcin and other parameters of bone metabolism were measured in 79 female patients with Crohn's disease.

Evaluation of ERCP- and endoscopic sphincterotomy-induced pancreatic damage: a prospective study on the time course and the significance of serum levels of pancreatic secretory enzymes.

In the present study the time courses of serum lipase, serum amylase and serum elastase 1 after ERCP/ES as indicators for pancreatic damage were prospectively analysed in 46 cases. The elevations of pancreatic enzymes after ERCP/ES scattered in a wide range and elevations occured which were greater than one hundred times the upper limit of normal. A moderate increment was seen as early as 5 minutes after intubation of the papilla.

[Increased activation of CD8-positive lymphocytes in patients with Crohn's disease].

CD8+ (suppressor/cytotoxic) T lymphocyte subpopulations were studied in the peripheral blood of patients with Crohn's disease by flow cytometry analysis. Consistent with earlier reports, increased numbers of CD8+CD57+ cells were observed as compared with controls. However, expanded CD8+CD57+ cells were not found to be present in a distinct clinical subset of patients.

[Hemodynamic and lung function analytic findings in so-called collagen diseases].

Twenty-four patients with connective tissue disease as defined by ARA criteria were submitted to a thorough cardiological and pulmonary diagnostic evaluation. Mean pulmonary arterial pressure was elevated in 54 per cent of the patients, a left-ventricular functional disorder taking the form of elevated pulmonary capillary occlusive pressure was almost equally as frequent. Interindividual comparisons suggest only a low progressivity of the cardiac involvement, while pulmonary involvement progresses rapidly, to become the prognostically predominating factor.

Evidence for a hepatocellular lineage in a combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma of transitional type.

A combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma (CHC) of transitional subtype and the surrounding cirrhotic liver tissue were investigated immunocytochemically by monoclonal antibodies specific for each of the keratin polypeptides 7, 8, 18 and 19. Different keratin subsets were found in different parts of the tumour. The hepatocellular component reveals keratins 8 and 18, with the bordering cells of trabecular formations additionally expressing keratins 7 and 19.