Survey of consent practices for inpatient colonoscopy and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography at a tertiary referral center.

Background: The purpose of the present paper was to determine informed consent practices for inpatient, open-access colonoscopy and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) at a tertiary referral center.

Methods: A two-part prospective study incorporating (i) an audit of consent practices for colonoscopy and ERCP; and (ii) a questionnaire directed at gastroenterologists and interns regarding information imparted to patients in the process of acquiring informed consent, was undertaken at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Western Australia. Study subjects consisted of inpatients undergoing open-access colonoscopy and/or ERCP at the study center commencing May 2003; and gastroenterologists and interns at the study center.

Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in Indigenous Western Australians: comparison between urban and remote rural populations.

Objectives: To determine and compare the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in an urban and a remote rural Western Australian Indigenous community.

Design: Cross-sectional study of Helicobacter pylori status determined by urea breath tests between mid-January 2003 and the end of June 2004.

Participants: 520 self-selected fasting participants, comprising 270 members of the Martu community at Jigalong, Punmu and Parnngurr in the East Pilbara region (129 men, 141 women; age range, 2-90 years) and 250 people from the Perth Indigenous community (96 men, 154 women; age range, 3-75 years.