An Unexpected Cause of Marked Weight Loss Associated with Vomiting in an Adult Man: Gastric Phytobeozar.

Objectives: We present the case of an edentulous 47-year-old farmer referred to our Department of Internal Medicine because of postprandial vomiting, hyporexia, asthenia and weight loss. He ate a mostly vegetarian diet.

Materials And Methods: An oesophagogastroduodenoscopy revealed the presence of a phytobezoar at the level of the fundus and body of the stomach.

Chromogranin A (CgA) serum level as a marker of progression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) of elderly patients.

The observation of neuroendocrine (NE) activity during clinical course of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), suggested the use of NE serum markers to detect it. Thus we have evaluated the usefulness of serum measurements of CgA in monitoring disease activity of HCC. We investigated the role of serum concentrations of CgA, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and des-gamma-carboxyl-prothrombin (DCP) in 55 patients with HCC, 27 patients with cirrhosis, 22 patients with chronic hepatitis and a control group of 20 volunteers and the relationship between the pre-treatment serum CgA and clinical stages of the disease.