Ursodeoxycholic therapy in chronic liver disease: a meta-analysis in primary biliary cirrhosis and in chronic hepatitis.

Objectives: to determine whether ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) is effective in improving primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) or chronic hepatitis (CH).

Methods: Meta-analysis (MA) was performed on nine papers and three abstracts describing PBC and on nine papers and two abstracts with CH that were published between 1985 and 1992 and were identified through MEDLINE. Studies were included if they fulfilled established quality criteria and the patients had at least liver histology at the start and two to three relevant laboratory tests repeated after UDCA.

Gastric syphilis: five recent cases and a review of the literature.

Objective: To describe five cases of early syphilis with gastric involvement and to review the literature pertaining to this disorder.

Data Identification: Five patients were diagnosed with gastric syphilis at Kings County Hospital and the Brooklyn Veterans Affairs Hospital between 1987 and 1990. English-language articles pertaining to gastric syphilis were identified by searching MEDLINE and by manually reviewing bibliographies of retrieved articles.

Comparative yield of blood culture for fungi and mycobacteria, liver biopsy, and bone marrow biopsy in the diagnosis of fever of undetermined origin in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients.

The diagnostic yield of mycobacterial blood cultures, bone marrow biopsy, and liver biopsy for determining the cause of unexplained fever was compared prospectively in eight men and four women with serologic evidence of human immunodeficiency virus infection and fever of undetermined origin. Mycobacterial infection was found in 8 of the 12 patients (Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 3 and Mycobacterium avium in 5). Mycobacteria were isolated from the blood of 6 of these 8 patients.