Psychiatric sequelae after SARS-Cov-2 infection: trajectory, predictors and associations in a longitudinal Australian cohort.

A relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and psychiatric symptoms has been identified but is still being fully investigated. Neuropsychiatric sequalae have been reported for several infectious agents and are not unexpected for SARS-CoV-2 infection. This study follows for 12 months a sample ( = 144) of people who have had a confirmed infection of SARS-CoV-2.

Coping with COVID-19: Exploring coping strategies, distress, and post-traumatic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.

Objective: This study aimed to explore coping strategies, distress, and post-traumatic growth among Australians with and without a history of a mental health diagnosis during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Materials And Methods: Australians ( = 381) completed an online survey between 4-August 2020 and 25-October-2020. Coping strategies, distress, and post-traumatic growth were ascertained the Brief COPE, Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), and Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), respectively.

'Case of the month': a novel way to learn from endoscopy-related patient safety incidents.

Patient safety incidents (PSIs) are unintended or unexpected incidents which can or do lead to patient harm. The Joint Advisory Group on Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (JAG) acknowledges that PSIs should be reviewed by endoscopy services and learning shared among staff. It is recognised that more could be done to promote shared learning as outlined by the JAG 'Improving Safety and Reducing Error in Endoscopy' strategy.

Diagnostic accuracy of whole-body MRI versus standard imaging pathways for metastatic disease in newly diagnosed colorectal cancer: the prospective Streamline C trial.

Background: Whole-body MRI (WB-MRI) could be an alternative to multimodality staging of colorectal cancer, but its diagnostic accuracy, effect on staging times, number of tests needed, cost, and effect on treatment decisions are unknown. We aimed to prospectively compare the diagnostic accuracy and efficiency of WB-MRI-based staging pathways with standard pathways in colorectal cancer.

Methods: The Streamline C trial was a prospective, multicentre trial done in 16 hospitals in England.

An unusual cause of intestinal failure.

Unlabelled: A 62-year-old man presented to the emergency department with 5 weeks of worsening lower abdominal pain associated with watery diarrhoea, vomiting and 10% loss of body weight. He had recently experienced night blindness. There was no history of foreign travel.

Dedicated Barrett's surveillance sessions managed by trained endoscopists improve dysplasia detection rate.

 Barrett's esophagus (BE)-associated dysplasia is an important marker for risk of progression to esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and an indication for endoscopic therapy. However, BE surveillance technique is variable. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of dedicated BE surveillance lists on dysplasia detection rate (DDR).

Veterans Health Administration's MOVE! Weight Management Program: Primary Care Clinicians' Perceptions of Program Implementation.

The Veterans Health Administration's MOVE! Program is the largest health care-delivered weight loss intervention in the United States. As a referring clinician's perceptions and knowledge of health programs may impact implementation, examining perceptions of MOVE! may inform improvements to this and other programs. This study investigated primary care clinician perceptions of MOVE! (n = 754, 50% nurses).

Provider and staff perceptions of veterans' attrition from a national primary care weight management program.

Background: Overweight and obesity are growing problems for primary care. Although effective weight management programs exist, these programs experience significant attrition, which limits effectiveness.

Objectives: This study examined provider and staff perceptions of attrition from the Veterans Health Administration MOVE!(®) Weight Management Program as an initial step toward understanding attrition from primary care-based programs.

Video capsule retention in inflammatory bowel disease: an unusual presentation and discussion of retrieval methods.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is characterized by chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Video capsule endoscopy (VCE) is widely used to investigate the small bowel, and capsule retention is the most serious potential complication. Endoscopic and surgical management has been reported, but in the absence of bowel obstruction, there is little consensus as to which should be employed.

Anaemia investigation in practice: inappropriate, cost inefficient with a risk of missing gastrointestinal cancer. Can we improve?

Iron-deficiency anaemia (IDA) is often inappropriately investigated. This study aimed to improve referrals, estimate cost implications and determine effectiveness of referral criteria for diagnosing cancer. Patients referred for investigation of anaemia were studied.

Low-dose azathioprine or mercaptopurine in combination with allopurinol can bypass many adverse drug reactions in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Background: The thiopurine drugs, azathioprine and mercaptopurine (MP), are established treatments for IBD. However, therapeutic failure caused by adverse drug reactions occurs frequently.

Aim: To study combination of allopurinol with reduced-dose thiopurine in an attempt to avoid adverse drug reactions in the treatment of IBD.

Prescribing statins to patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: real cardiovascular benefits outweigh theoretical hepatotoxic risk.

Statins are among the most widely prescribed drugs in the western world and play a significant role in reducing cardiovascular risk. However, concern regarding their hepatic safety profile has meant that patients with concurrent liver pathology are often denied such benefits. In this review we consider the evidence for and against the prescription of statins to patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a group typically associated with high cardiovascular risk.

Helicobacter hypothesis for idiopathic parkinsonism: before and beyond.

We challenge the concept of idiopathic parkinsonism (IP) as inevitably progressive neurodegeneration, proposing a natural history of sequential microbial insults with predisposing host response. Proof-of-principle that infection can contribute to IP was provided by case studies and a placebo-controlled efficacy study of Helicobacter eradication. "Malignant" IP appears converted to "benign", but marked deterioration accompanies failure.

Long-term outcome of using allopurinol co-therapy as a strategy for overcoming thiopurine hepatotoxicity in treating inflammatory bowel disease.

Background: Hepatotoxicity results in the withdrawal of thiopurines drugs, azathioprine (AZA) and mercaptopurine (MP), in up to 10% of patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Our group previously demonstrated that allopurinol with AZA/ciclosporin/steroid 'triple therapy' improved renal graft survival.

Aim: To confirm the hypothesis that allopurinol may alleviate thiopurine hepatotoxicity by similar mechanisms as proposed in our renal study.

Selective white cell apheresis reduces relapse rates in patients with IBD at significant risk of clinical relapse.

Background: We assessed whether selective granulocyte and monocyte/macrophage adsorption apheresis maintained clinical remission in asymptomatic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients at significant risk of clinical relapse.

Methods: Sixty asymptomatic patients (age 18-70 years) with IBD (in clinical remission) with fecal calprotectin over 250 microg/g (which defines those at risk of clinical relapse with >80% specificity and sensitivity) were recruited for this open-label, prospective, randomized, controlled study. Twenty-nine underwent selective leukocytapheresis, undergoing 5, once weekly, out-patient sessions.

Weight loss, dietary advice and statin therapy in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a retrospective study.

Background: Studies have shown that weight loss can have a favourable effect upon non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, the most effective means of achieving weight loss and safety profile of lipid-lowering drugs in the presence of NAFLD is unknown.

Aim: To investigate the effect of dietary advice and lipid-lowering drugs, particularly statins, on patients with NAFLD and dyslipidaemia.

A growing burden: the pathogenesis, investigation and management of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common hepatic disorder in western countries, and its incidence is increasing. This review outlines the significant health burden posed by NAFLD and discusses what is presently known about its pathogenesis, including the roles of the metabolic syndrome, obesity, insulin resistance, hepatic steatosis, reactive oxygen species, inflammatory cytokines and adipocytokines. The way in which NAFLD is clinically diagnosed is described, and areas of uncertainty surrounding its investigation are identified, before discussing the relative merits of the limited treatment options available and looking ahead to potential therapeutic strategies for the future.

Exonic STK11 deletions are not a rare cause of Peutz-Jeghers syndrome.

Background: Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS) is a rare, autosomal dominant cancer predisposition syndrome characterised by oro-facial pigmentation and hamartomatous polyposis of the gastrointestinal tract. A causal germline mutation in STK11 can be identified in 30% to 80% of PJS patients.

Methods: Here we report the comprehensive mutational analysis of STK11 in 38 PJS probands applying conventional PCR based mutation detection methods and the recently introduced MLPA (multiplex ligation dependent probe amplification) technique developed for the identification of exonic deletions/duplications.

Biochemical markers of acute pancreatitis.

Serum amylase remains the most commonly used biochemical marker for the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis, but its sensitivity can be reduced by late presentation, hypertriglyceridaemia, and chronic alcoholism. Urinary trypsinogen-2 is convenient, of comparable diagnostic accuracy, and provides greater (99%) negative predictive value. Early prediction of the severity of acute pancreatitis can be made by well validated scoring systems at 48 hours, but the novel serum markers procalcitonin and interleukin 6 allow earlier prediction (12 to 24 hours after admission).

A controlled trial of ondansetron in the pruritus of cholestasis.

Background: In patients with pruritus of cholestasis, response to conventional drug treatment may be unsatisfactory. Activation of 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors on dermal sensory nerve-endings plays a role in the perception of pruritus. The 5-hydroxytryptamine(3) receptor antagonist, ondansetron, has been used in the treatment of pruritus of cholestasis, but there are few controlled data.

Sequence changes in predicted promoter elements of STK11/LKB1 are unlikely to contribute to Peutz-Jeghers syndrome.

Background: Germline mutations or large-scale deletions in the coding region and splice sites of STK11/LKB1 do not account for all cases of Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS). It is conceivable that, on the basis of data from other diseases, inherited variation in promoter elements of STK11/LKB1 may cause PJS.

Results: Phylogenetic foot printing and transcription factor binding site prediction of sequence 5' to the coding sequence of STK11/LKB1 was performed to identify non-coding sequences of DNA indicative of regulatory elements.