Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin-receptor blockers, and risk of appendicitis.

Purpose: Angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and, less commonly, angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs), have been associated with angioedema, including small bowel angioedema. We sought to determine whether this process might be associated with appendicitis.

Methods: We conducted a nested case-control study of incident appendicitis in a subcohort of 305,958 commercially insured hypertensive adults throughout the United States.

Prevalence of clinically important histology in small adenomas.

Background & Aims: The prevalence of advanced histology in small polyps has become a crucial issue in optimizing colorectal cancer screening strategies, especially in view of the advent of computed tomography colonography. We evaluated the prevalence of advanced histology in small and diminutive adenomas to clarify their clinical importance in terms of malignant potential.

Methods: Data were reviewed retrospectively from 3291 colonoscopies performed on asymptomatic patients found to have an adenoma on screening with flexible sigmoidoscopy a few weeks before the colonoscopy or who had a family history of colorectal cancer.

Angioedema of the small bowel due to an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor.

We describe a case of a 72-year-old woman who presented with two episodes of abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. Abdominal computed tomographic scans done during each episode demonstrated edema of the small bowel. Review of the patient's history revealed that she had been started on a treatment of lisinopril for hypertension 1 month before the first episode and had her prescribed dose increased 24 hours before each presentation.

Iron reduction before and during interferon therapy of chronic hepatitis C: results of a multicenter, randomized, controlled trial.

Patients with chronic hepatitis C and low serum and hepatic iron stores may have an improved response to interferon (IFN). We tested whether iron reduction before and during IFN therapy would lead to an improved sustained biochemical and virological response compared with IFN alone. Eighty-two previously untreated patients with chronic hepatitis C were randomized to either: group A IFN-alpha2b 3 MU 3 times per week for 6 months, or group B iron reduction before and during IFN-alpha2b 3 MU 3 times per week for 6 months.

Differences in laser-induced autofluorescence between adenomatous and hyperplastic polyps and normal colonic mucosa by confocal microscopy.

Laser-induced autofluorescence has been used to discriminate normal from adenomatous colonic mucosa. However, few studies to date have studied the origin of colonic autofluorescence. Using confocal microscopy (excitation wavelength 488 nm), we have shown that autofluorescence at this wavelength is present predominantly in the lamina propria of normal mucosa but in the epithelium in adenomatous and hyperplastic polyps.