Cardiovascular, Renal and Pulmonary Toxicity of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Cancer: What the GP Should Know.

Immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) is administered in different cancer types and can lead to a wide range of immune-related adverse events including toxicity in vital organs such as the lungs, the kidneys, and the heart. The main hypothesis suggests an overactivation of the immune cells in the different organs. Whereas immune-related cardiotoxicity is very rare but life threatening, ICI-induced acute kidney injury and pneumonitis are more frequent but in general less severe.

Common bile duct stones in acute biliary pancreatitis: an endoscopic study.

The knowledge of the natural history of common bile duct stones in biliary pancreatitis may be helpful in the debate concerning the timing of endoscopic sphincterotomy in relation to surgery. The endoscopic cholangiographies of 211 patients with biliary pancreatitis were analyzed. The presence of bile duct stones was recorded, as well as the time interval between admission and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP).

Proton-pump inhibition and gastric giardiasis: a causal or casual association?

Two patients who developed gastric giardiasis after 2 weeks of treatment with omeprazole 20 mg b.i.d.

Endoscopic ultrasonography and esophageal cancer.

Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS), performed by means of an endoscope equipped with an ultrasound transducer, has been used in the imaging, staging, and follow-up of esophageal cancer for a decade. Although at first considered as a more or less experimental procedure, it emerged in the last six years as a valuable and precise tool for the assessment of various upper GI disorders. It is now well established that EUS can provide more accurate staging information on upper GI pathology than other imaging techniques such as conventional radiology, conventional ultrasound, CT, MRI and endoscopy.