Prediction of esophageal varices and variceal hemorrhage in patients with acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding.

In patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB), identifying those with esophageal variceal hemorrhage prior to endoscopy would be clinically useful. This retrospective study of a large cohort of patients with UGIB used logistic regression analyses to evaluate the platelet count, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) to platelet ratio index (APRI), AST to alanine aminotransferase (ALT) ratio (AAR) and Lok index (all non-invasive blood markers) as predictors of variceal bleeding in (1) all patients with UGIB and (2) patients with cirrhosis and UGIB. 2233 patients admitted for UGIB were identified; 1034 patients had cirrhosis (46%) and of these, 555 patients (54%) had acute UGIB due to esophageal varices.

A risk scoring system to predict in-hospital mortality in patients with cirrhosis presenting with upper gastrointestinal bleeding.

Goals: We aimed to develop a simple and practical risk scoring system to predict in-hospital mortality in cirrhotics presenting with upper gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding.

Study: Extensive clinical data were captured in patients with documented cirrhosis who underwent endoscopic evaluation for upper GI bleeding between January 1, 2003 and June 30, 2011 at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Predictors of mortality were identified by multivariate regression analysis.

Diet variety based on macronutrient intake and its relationship with body mass index.

Context: Increased dietary variety has been associated with increased body weight; however, diet variety is not measured using a standardized methodology.

Objective: We developed a new dietary variety score (DVS) based on food macronutrient content, and determined the relationship between DVS and measures of adiposity.

Design: Cross-sectional, observation study.