A Novel Guide-Wire Technique for Repositioning a Nasobiliary Catheter from Mouth to Nostril without Using a Nelaton Tube.

Objective: We aimed to assess the usefulness of a novel guide-wire technique for repositioning without the use of a Nelaton tube and to compare this to the conventional technique.

Subjects And Methods: A total of 50 patients who underwent endoscopic nasobiliary drainage (ENBD) at the Yachiyo Medical Center, Chiba, Japan, were enrolled into the study. The patients were randomly divided into 2 groups according to the use of a novel guide-wire technique (n = 28) or the conventional technique (n = 22).

Metachronous early gastric cancer over a period of 13 years after eradication of Helicobacter pylori.

Stomach cancer can occur during chronic inflammation from Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection, and its occurrence can be suppressed by eradication of HP. However, the effects of suppressing stomach cancer by HP eradication are limited, and the cancer is known to recur even after eradication of this infection. Here, we report the case of a 56-year-old male patient with gastric cancer who, although undergoing HP eradication after treatment of early gastric cancer with endoscopy, experienced five metachronous cancer recurrences over a period of 13 years.

Clinical evaluation of the Tokyo Guidelines 2013 for severity assessment of acute cholangitis.

Background: We evaluated the severity assessment criteria for acute cholangitis (AC) of the Tokyo Guidelines 2013 (TG13) and developed a scoring system for predicting the need for urgent/early biliary drainage.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 66 AC cases prospectively managed based on the TG07 and divided into an urgent/early biliary drainage group (n = 30) and elective biliary drainage group (n = 36).

Results: There were 26 mild, 27 moderate, and 13 severe cases based on the TG13.

Proposed new simple scoring system to identify indications for urgent ERCP in acute cholangitis based on the Tokyo Guidelines.

Background/purpose: The Tokyo Guidelines (TG) have enabled more accurate diagnosis of acute cholangitis (AC). This study was undertaken to develop a new prognostic scoring system to predict the need for urgent endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) based on the clinical findings on admission.

Methods: We prospectively reviewed 40 consecutive cases of AC and divided them into an urgent-ERCP group and an elective-ERCP group.

Peptide-induced hyperactivation-like vigorous flagellar movement in starfish sperm.

Asterosap, a sperm-activating peptide (SAP) from the starfish egg jelly coat, is diffusible and controls a cGMP-signalling pathway in starfish sperm in the same manner as resact, a potent chemoattracting SAP in sea urchins. This fact suggests that asterosap may serve as a chemoattractant like resact at concentrations with appropriate gradients. Since asterosap is one of three egg jelly components, which in concert induce the acrosome reaction, it is still worthwhile to evaluate how asterosap modulates sperm motility prior to this reaction.