Validation of MELD3.0 in 2 centers from different continents.

Background: MELD3.0 has been proposed to stratify patients on the liver transplant waiting list (WL) to reduce the historical disadvantage of women in accessing liver transplant. Our aim was to validate MELD3.

Women Are Also Disadvantaged in Accessing Transplant Outside the United States: Analysis of the Spanish Liver Transplantation Registry.

Sex inequities in liver transplantation (LT) have been documented in several, mostly US-based, studies. Our aim was to describe sex-related differences in access to LT in a system with short waiting times. All adult patients registered in the RETH-Spanish Liver Transplant Registry (2000-2022) for LT were included.

Tolvaptan in portal hypertension: real life experience.

Tolvaptan (TVP) is a selective antagonist of vasopressin receptors, approved for the treatment of hyponatremia in SIADH, congestive heart failure (CHF) and cirrhosis. We retrospectively reviewed all cases where TVP was used in a tertiary hospital (January 2012- January 2017). Our aim was to study the use of TVP in real life practice in patients with portal hypertension (PHT) (past history of non-malignant ascites or variceal bleed).

Can artificial intelligence increase the efficiency of referrals from primary to specialized care?

The overload of the current healthcare model makes the search for strategies to improve process efficiency essential. An artificial intelligence (AI) program based on Natural Language Processing pipelines (1-5) was used. It analyzed the referrals from primary care to Gastroenterology in the health area corresponding to our hospital in order to identify the most frequent reasons for consultation and to assign them a protocol for the performance of complementary tests before being seen for the first time in specialized care.

Are MELD and MELDNa Still Reliable Tools to Predict Mortality on the Liver Transplant Waiting List?

Liver transplantation is the only curative treatment for end-stage liver disease. Unfortunately, the scarcity of donor organs and the increasing pool of potential recipients limit access to this life-saving procedure. Allocation should account for medical and ethical factors, ensuring equal access to transplantation regardless of recipient's gender, race, religion, or income.

Functional gastrointestinal disorders: real-life results of a multidisciplinary non-pharmacological approach based on group-consultations.

Introduction: functional gastrointestinal disorders are prevalent and resource consuming. The use of group-consultations in these diseases is limited and no specific multidisciplinary programs have been developed.

Methods: a multidisciplinary approach was used in patients with diverse functional gastrointestinal disorders attending group-consultations (group A).

Management of hyponatremia associated with acute porphyria-proposal for the use of tolvaptan.

Hyponatremia is a common feature during the neurovisceral acute attacks which characterize hepatic porphyrias, as well as a sign of its severity. Therapeutic options for first-line acute attacks are intravenous administration of glucose and/or exogenous heme. The former treatment can aggravate hyponatremia by dilution and cause seizures; thus, the correction of hyponatremia must be carried out with extreme caution.

Secondary prophylaxis for esophageal variceal bleeding.

Combination therapy with beta-blockers and endoscopic band ligation (EBL) is the standard prophylaxis of esophageal variceal rebleeding in cirrhosis. Beta-blockers are the backbone of combination therapy, since their benefit extend to other complications of portal hypertension. EBL carries the risk of post-banding ulcer bleeding, which explains why overall rebleeding is reduced when beta-blockers are added to EBL, and not when EBL is added to beta-blockers.

Rebleeding prophylaxis improves outcomes in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. A multicenter case-control study.

Unlabelled: Outcome of variceal bleeding (VB) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unknown. We compared outcomes after VB in patients with and without HCC. All patients with HCC and esophageal VB admitted between 2007 and 2010 were included.

Prognostic value of hepatic venous pressure gradient in patients with compensated chronic hepatitis C-related cirrhosis.

Background And Aim: Hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) is the main predictor of clinical decompensation in cirrhotic patients with compensated disease of any etiology without varices. However, the predictive factors of decompensation are not so well known in patients with hepatitis C-related compensated cirrhosis, in whom etiology-based therapy is difficult. The aim of this study was to identify predictors of decompensation in patients with compensated chronic hepatitis C (CHC)-related cirrhosis with and without esophageal varices (Baveno stages 1 and 2).

[Listeria monocytogenes prosthetic joint infection: Case report and review of the literature].

Introduction: Listeria monocytogenes is an unusual pathogenic agent in the general population, but is an important cause of bacteriemia and meningoencephalitis among newborns, pregnant women, the elderly population, and immunosuppressed patients. In rare cases, it has been described in joint prosthesis infections.

Methods: A case description of prosthetic joint infection caused by Listeria in a 74-year-old man is presented.