Predicting short-term and long-term mortality of hospitalized Portuguese patients with alcoholic hepatitis.

Background: Alcohol abuse can result in a spectrum of liver injury that ranges from mild fatty infiltration to alcoholic hepatitis (AH), cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The present study aimed to evaluate current scoring systems in predicting short-term and long-term mortality because of AH.

Patients And Methods: Records of 170 consecutive patients with AH admitted to a tertiary center between January 2005 and October 2015 were reviewed.

Hemangioma of the rectum - How misleading can hematochezia be?

We present the case of an 18-year-old male patient that was referred to our gastrenterology department with history of intermittent painless hematochezia since childhood. During such instances, he was diagnosed with bowel intussusception, eosinophilic gastroenteritis and inflammatory bowel disease at 4, 6 and 8 years old, respectively. He underwent treatment with 5-aminosalicylic acid for two years, without improvement of symptoms.

An observational study of the direct costs related to hospital admissions, mortality and premature death associated with liver disease in Portugal.

Background: Liver disease, one of the most common causes of hospitalization worldwide, is particularly prevalent in Europe. This study aimed to determine the number of hospital discharges and admissions, mortality, premature death and costs associated with liver disease from the perspective of the National Health Service in Portugal.

Methods: A descriptive, retrospective analysis of data from 97 hospitals between 2000 and 2008, and mortality data for 2011 collected from the Portuguese National Institute of Statistics.

Benefits of curing hepatitis C infection.

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the most important chronic viral infections worldwide and affects 3% of the world population, approximately 170-200 million people. The consequences of chronic infection are liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, which develop in 20-30% of the patients, leading to hepatic failure, need for liver transplantation and death. The hepatitis C virus is a RNA virus that is prevalent worldwide and is classified by the World Health Organization (International Agency for Research on Cancer) as one of the six oncogenic viruses.

Ibandronate-associated ischemic colitis: case report.

Ibandronate is considered to be a safe drug, and the few reported side-effects in the digestive system are usually related to the upper gastrointestinal tract. Large bowel lesions associated to ibandronate use in humans have not been reported. We describe the case of a 52-year-old female with two episodes of lower abdominal pain after the intake of oral ibandronate.