Quality of bowel cleansing in hospitalized patients undergoing colonoscopy: A multicentre prospective regional study.

Background: Quality of bowel cleansing in hospitalized patients undergoing colonoscopy is often unsatisfactory. No study has investigated the inpatient or outpatient setting as cause of inadequate cleansing.

Aims: To assess degree of bowel cleansing in inpatients and outpatients and to identify possible predictors of poor bowel preparation in the two populations.

Advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma: US/chest radiography for detection of relapse in patients in first complete remission--a randomized trial of routine surveillance imaging procedures.

Purpose: To compare the use of fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) with the use of a combination of ultrasonography (US) and chest radiography for systematic follow-up of patients with high-risk Hodgkin lymphoma.

Materials And Methods: Institutional review board approval and informed consent were obtained. In a single center between January 2001 and December 2009, patients with advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma who had responded completely to first-line treatment were randomly assigned (1:1) to follow-up with either PET/CT or US/chest radiography.

What are the implications of the spontaneous spleno-renal shunts in liver cirrhosis?

Background: Although significant advances are expected to be made in the assessment of the portal hypertension-related complications, the prognostic role of spleno-renal shunts has not been fully explored so far. Clarifying this aspect could help tackle the life-treating events occurring in patients suffering from liver cirrhosis. The aim of the study was to analyze the relationships between the spleno-renal shunts presence at doppler ultrasound and the liver cirrhosis complications.

[The colonoscoy in elderly patients].

Aim: The increase in the average life led an increase of diseases, acute and chronic, not only cardiovascular and respiratory system, but also gastrointestinal. Likewise we see an increase in neoplastic lesions, sometimes diagnosed in advanced stage of disease, not susceptible to radical therapy. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the usefulness, reliability and security of colonoscopy in elderly patients, age 75 years or more.

Blood ammonia levels in liver cirrhosis: a clue for the presence of portosystemic collateral veins.

Background: Portal hypertension leads to the formation of portosystemic collateral veins in liver cirrhosis. The resulting shunting is responsible for the development of portosystemic encephalopathy. Although ammonia plays a certain role in determining portosystemic encephalopathy, the venous ammonia level has not been found to correlate with the presence or severity of this entity.

The contribution of omental adipose tissue to adipokine concentrations in patients with the metabolic syndrome.

Purpose: To examine differences in peripheral vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), interleukin-6 (IL6) and cortisol concentrations between patients with both visceral obesity and metabolic syndrome, and lean controls. In a subsample of metabolic patients underwent abdominal surgery, the adipokine concentrations were measured in venous blood from the omentum to determine information on some processes of synthesis.

Methods: Forty-two healthy lean controls and 46 overweight-obese patients with central adiposity and stigmata of metabolic syndrome were studied.