Periodic gastroenterology and hepatology meetings with primary care. Reasons for consultation.

Introduction: care overload, aging of population, and increased chronic diseases lead to increased referrals from primary care, which may sometimes overload the health system. Thus, different interventions have been carried out attempting to improve these aspects.

Objectives: to assess the most frequent causes of consultation of general physicians, both in joint consultations and clinical sessions held jointly with specialist consultant in primary care, in the urban and rural setting, and the influence on referrals to first consultations of gastroenterology.

[Immunity against hepatitis A virus in patients with chronic hepatitis C].

Background And Objective: Because of high fatality rate associated with acute infection by hepatitis A virus (HAV) in chronic hepatitis C patients, it is of interest to know the prevalence of immunization against HAV in these patients.

Patients And Method: Immunoglobulin G (IgG) IgG HAV antibodies (IgG anti-HAV) were determined in 313 hepatitis C virus antibodies (anti-HCV) positive patients and in 313 anti-HCV negative subjects (control group). Several epidemiological factors were recorded (age, sex, rural vs urban precedence, tattoos, parenteral drugs use, alcohol consumption and surgery).