Validation of the German Inflammatory Bowel Disease Fatigue (IBD-F) Questionnaire.

Introduction: Fatigue is a common symptom in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). To date, there is no instrument to assess IBD-specific fatigue in German. The aim of this study was to translate the IBD Fatigue (IBD-F) scale and to test its psychometric properties in a German IBD population.

Advanced Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: Moving Forward.

Globally, the death rate of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has doubled over 30 years and is likely to further increase, making PDAC a leading cause of cancer-related death in the coming years. PDAC is typically diagnosed at an advanced stage, and modified FOLFIRINOX or nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine are the mainstay of systemic therapy. For elderly patients with good performance status, low-dose treatment can preserve quality of life without compromising cancer control or survival.

The BRAF Status May Predict Response to Sorafenib in Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors Resistant to Imatinib, Sunitinib, and Regorafenib: Case Series and Review of the Literature.

Background: Sorafenib has shown efficacy in patients with imatinib-, sunitinib-, and regorafenib-resistant gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). No biomarker is currently available for predicting response to sorafenib in patients with GIST.

Methods: We herein report 3 patients with imatinib-, sunitinib-, and regorafenib-resistant metastasized GISTs, who were treated with sorafenib.

Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy is not associated with the onset of inflammatory bowel diseases. A case-control study.

Background And Aims: A negative association between H. pylori and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been previously reported. There were also case reports suggesting a new onset of IBD 6-12 months after H.

Nutrition in Patients with Gastric Cancer: An Update.

Background: Nutritional management of patients with gastric cancer (GC) represents a challenge.

Summary: This review provides an overview of the present evidence on nutritional support in patients with GC undergoing surgery as well as in those with advanced disease.

Key Message: For patients undergoing surgery, the preoperative nutritional condition directly affects postoperative prognosis, overall survival and disease-specific survival.

Effect of probiotic or prebiotic supplementation on antibiotic therapy in the small intestinal bacterial overgrowth: a comparative evaluation.

Unlabelled: Bacterial intestinal overgrowth syndrome (SIBO) treatment is based on antibiotics. Probiotics have been shown to give similar results, whilst no study is available about prebiotics. This study evaluated the addition of probiotics or prebiotics to antibiotics on SIBO symptoms in a 6-month follow-up.

Probiotic multistrain treatment may eradicate Helicobacter pylori from the stomach of dyspeptics: a placebo-controlled pilot study.

Unlabelled: Probiotics survive in gastric environment competing with H. pylori. We studied probiotic "multistrain" administration in dyspeptics with H.

The use of human albumin for the treatment of ascites in patients with liver cirrhosis: item of safety, facts, controversies and perspectives.

Albumin constitutes approximately one half of the proteins in the plasma and plays a pivotal role in modulating the distribution of fluid between body compartments. Hence it is commonly employed in cirrhotic patients in association with diuretics for the treatment of ascites. Nevertheless, its usefulness is controversial in this condition and well-stated only in some circumstances.

Infliximab therapy downregulation of basic fibroblast growth factor/syndecan 1 link: a possible molecular pathway of mucosal healing in ulcerative colitis.

Background: It is known that syndecan 1 in inflammatory bowel diseases is able to migrate from epithelial basolateral site to the stromal area and apical surface of epithelium with a consequent activation and modulation of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), and this process sustains mucosal healing of ulcers. On the other hand, tumour necrosis factor (TNF) α mucosal levels are directly related to the entity of the damage in these disorders. Aim of the study A 'post-hoc' retrospective study was performed to estimate mucosal TNF α in rectal biopsies of subjects with ulcerative colitis (UC) before and after effective infliximab therapy and its relationship with syndecan 1, bFGF and endoscopic mucosal healing.

Mechanisms of Helicobacter pylori antibiotic resistance: An updated appraisal.

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) antibiotic resistance is the main factor affecting the efficacy of the current eradicating therapies. The aim of this editorial is to report on the recent information about the mechanisms accounting for the resistance to the different antibiotics currently utilized in H.

Metabolic syndrome and gastro-esophageal reflux: A link towards a growing interest in developed countries.

The aim of this Editorial is to describe the growing possibility of a link between gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) and metabolic syndrome on the light of recent epidemiological and pathophysiological evidence. The state of the art of GERD is described, based on recent definitions, pathophysiological evidence, epidemiology in developed countries, clinical subtypes together with a diagnostic approach specifically focussed on the appropriateness of endoscopy. Metabolic syndrome is accurately defined and the pivotal role of insulin resistance is emphasized.

From chronic liver disorders to hepatocellular carcinoma: Molecular and genetic pathways.

Hepatocarcinogenesis is a process attributed to progressive genomic changes that alter the hepatocellular phenotype producing cellular intermediates that evolve into hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). During the preneoplastic phase, the liver is often the site of chronic hepatitis and/or cirrhosis, and these conditions induce liver regeneration with accelerated hepatocyte cycling in an organ that is otherwise proliferatively at rest. Hepatocyte regeneration is accelerated by upregulation of mitogenic pathways involving molecular and genetic mechanisms.