Endoscopic papillectomy for carcinoma of the ampulla of Vater: possible standardization based on endoscopy and immunohistochemistry.

Background/aims: Clinicopathological investigation of the indications for the use of endoscopic papillectomy as a treatment for carcinoma in situ of the ampulla of Vater (CAV).

Materials And Methods: Of 97 patients diagnosed with CAV in our department over the last 15 years, the 5 patients who received a carcinoma in situ diagnosis and were included in this retrospective study.

Results: The lesions in the patients were classified as either the superficial or luminal type, based on endoscopic findings.

Influence of microscopically positive resection margins on long-term (>5-year) survival after resection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Context: The impact of R1 resection on outcomes in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is unclear, with most studies assessing survival for up to 5 years.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic influence of R1 and R0 resection on >5-year survival in patients with PDAC.

Material And Methods: Of the 271 patients with PDAC who underwent pancreatic resection over a 26-year period, 33 had survived for ≥5 years.

Knowledge discovery for pancreatic cancer using inductive logic programming.

Pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease and predicting the status of the patients becomes an important and urgent issue. The authors explore the applicability of inductive logic programming (ILP) method in the disease and show that the accumulated clinical laboratory data can be used to predict disease characteristics, and this will contribute to the selection of therapeutic modalities of pancreatic cancer. The availability of a large amount of clinical laboratory data provides clues to aid in the knowledge discovery of diseases.

Long-term outcomes after endoscopic sphincterotomy versus endoscopic papillary balloon dilation for bile duct stones.

Objective: Endoscopic sphincterotomy (ES) is a well-established standard method for treating common bile duct stones. However, biliary sphincter function is impaired after the treatment, and this may influence the long-term outcomes. In this study, we aimed to compare the long-term outcomes after ES with those after endoscopic papillary balloon dilation (EPBD) because the latter procedure is expected to preserve biliary sphincter function better than ES.

FU-MK-1 expression in human gallbladder carcinoma: an antigenic prediction marker for a better postsurgical prognosis.

Gallbladder carcinoma is an aggressive type of neoplasm difficult to cure by conventional procedures. Because of the lack of reliable markers for assessing the prognosis, this retrospective study was designed to investigate the prognostic significance of MK-1 overexpression in human carcinoma of the gallbladder. Immunohistochemical staining using monoclonal antibody FU-MK-1 (MK-1 antigen) was performed on paraffin-embedded tissues from 63 patients who had undergone surgical resection for gallbladder carcinoma.

Diagnosis of small pancreatic cancer by endoscopic balloon-catheter spot pancreatography: an analysis of 29 patients.

Objectives: The diagnosis of small pancreatic cancer remains difficult. The present study describes the diagnostic value of endoscopic balloon-catheter spot pancreatography for small pancreatic cancer.

Methods: Since April 1984, balloon spot pancreatography has been used to detect small-sized pancreatic cancer in patients having possible symptoms or findings of obstructive pancreatitis.

An endoscopic sphincterotomy of the minor papilla in the management of symptomatic pancreas divisum.

Background/aims: The efficacy of endoscopic treatment in pancreas divisum remains controversial. This study evaluated the results of an endoscopic sphincterotomy of the minor papilla and temporary transpapillary pancreatic stenting in patients with pancreas divisum.

Methodology: Pancreas divisum was diagnosed in four patients between 1994 and 2004.

Balloon-catheter endoscopic retrograde pancreatography-compression study for diagnosis of early-stage pancreatitis.

Endoscopic retrograde pancreatography (ERP) is considered by many as the gold standard imaging method in the diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis (CP). However, conventional ERP usually has a limited ability to accurately diagnose early-stage CP, in which only the branch ducts are involved and the main pancreatic duct (MPD) is unaffected. To visualize precisely the branch ducts, we have developed a more sophisticated ERP method, called balloon ERP-compression study (balloon ERP-CS).

Intraductal tubular adenoma of the pancreas, pyloric gland type: a clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical study of 6 cases.

The intraductal tubular adenoma (ITA), pyloric gland type, of the pancreas is an uncommon benign tumor, akin to the pyloric gland type adenoma of the gallbladder. We report 6 cases of ITA of the pancreas: 3 male and 3 female aged 50 to 79 years (mean, 63.5 years; median, 65 years); all were examined clinicopathologically.

[Interventional treatment of biliary stricture].

Biliary stenting is a well-established intervention in pancreatic-biliary disease. Although interventional therapy is an excellent less-invasive method that can improve the quality of life of patients with stricture of the bile duct, inappropriate application can be harmful. The procedure includes the endoscopic as well as percutaneous transhepatic approach.

Endoscopic sphincterotomy and endoscopic papillary balloon dilatation for bile duct stones: A prospective randomized controlled multicenter trial.

Background: Endoscopic papillary balloon dilatation may be an alternative to endoscopic sphincterotomy in the treatment of bile duct stones. However, there is a controversy as to the effectiveness and safety of endoscopic papillary balloon dilatation.

Methods: Two hundred eighty-two patients with bile duct stones were enrolled and randomized to an endoscopic sphincterotomy or endoscopic papillary balloon dilatation group.

[Evaluation of diagnostic imagings of liver metastases].

With the advent of various therapeutic modalities for the management of metastatic liver tumor, the task of pretreatment imaging has become more demanding. US and CT are non-invasive, and the most widely used techniques for pretreatment imaging, but they are far from optimal. Recently, the most sensitive pretreatment imaging modality for the depiction of focal liver lesions is CT during arterial portography (CTAP); however, it is an invasive procedure with an established risk of false-positive results.