District general hospital networks can provide safe and effective hepatitis C treatment: results of a 5-year audit.

Introduction: Chronic hepatitis C treatment is well described in randomized-controlled trials (RCTs). We aimed to determine whether these findings can be extrapolated to treatment programmes delivered by nurse specialists in district general hospitals (DGHs).

Materials And Methods: Within the Dorset viral hepatitis network, chronic hepatitis C patients were treated in three DGHs by nurse specialists working under the supervision of four lead clinicians.

A case-control study of childhood environmental risk factors for the development of inflammatory bowel disease.

Objective: To clarify the relationship between childhood environment and the risk of subsequent development of Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.

Design And Outcome Measures: A case-control study, assessing the risk of inflammatory bowel disease in relation to a series of historical and serological markers of childhood circumstance, analysed using the maximum likelihood form of conditional logistic regression.

Setting: District general hospital (secondary care institution).

Adult endomysial antibody-negative coeliac disease and cigarette smoking.

Objective: To determine the relative incidence and characteristics of endomysial antibody (EMA)-negative coeliac disease in adults.

Design: Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data on adults with newly diagnosed coeliac disease, with determination of EMA status before gluten withdrawal.

Setting: District general hospital (secondary care institution).

Prevention of recurrent pancreatitis in familial lipoprotein lipase deficiency with high-dose antioxidant therapy.

We describe a dramatic response to antioxidant therapy in three patients with familial lipoprotein lipase deficiency complicated by frequent severe episodes of pancreatitis who had failed to respond to other dietary and pharmacological measures. Antioxidant therapy may be an important advance in the management of this type of patient.

Mutations of the cystic fibrosis gene in patients with chronic pancreatitis.

Background: The pancreatic lesions of cystic fibrosis develop in utero and closely resemble those of chronic pancreatitis. Therefore, we hypothesized that mutations of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene may be more common than expected among patients with chronic pancreatitis.

Methods: We studied 134 consecutive patients with chronic pancreatitis (alcohol-related disease in 71, hyperparathyroidism in 2, hypertriglyceridemia in 1, and idiopathic disease in 60).