Endoscopic luminal stenting: Current applications and future perspectives.

Endoscopic luminal stenting (ELS) represents a minimally invasive option for the management of malignant obstruction along the gastrointestinal tract. Previous studies have shown that ELS can provide rapid relief of symptoms related to esophageal, gastric, small intestinal, colorectal, biliary, and pancreatic neoplastic strictures without compromising cancer patients' overall safety. As a result, in both palliative and neoadjuvant settings, ELS has largely surpassed radiotherapy and surgery as a first-line treatment modality.

Curriculum for ERCP and endoscopic ultrasound training in Europe: European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) Position Statement.

The European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) has recognized the need to formalize and enhance training in endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS). This manuscript represents the outcome of a formal Delphi process resulting in an official Position Statement of the ESGE and provides a framework to develop and maintain skills in ERCP and EUS. This curriculum is set out in terms of the prerequisites prior to training; recommended steps of training to a defined syllabus; the quality of training; and how competence should be defined and evidenced before independent practice.

Effect of golimumab on health-related quality of life, other patient-reported outcomes and healthcare resource utilization in patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis: a real-world multicenter, noninterventional, observational study in Greece.

Background And Aims: This real-world study assessed the impact of golimumab on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and other patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in patients with ulcerative colitis over 12 months in Greece.

Methods: GO-LIFE was a noninterventional, prospective, multicenter, 12-month study. Patients who had moderately-to-severely active ulcerative colitis were naïve to antitumor necrosis factor (anti-TNFα) therapy and had failed previous conventional therapy.

Primary sclerosing cholangitis and inflammatory bowel disease comorbidity: an update of the evidence.

Comorbid primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) represent a unique disease phenotype with a different risk profile than PSC or IBD alone. While the pathogenetic mechanisms behind both diseases remain unclear, recent studies have targeted several immune-mediated pathways in an attempt to find a potential therapeutic target. Patients with PSC-associated IBD typically exhibit pancolitis with a right-to-left intestinal inflammatory gradient associated with a greater incidence of backwash ileitis and rectal sparing.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease [IBD] and Physical Activity: A Study on the Impact of Diagnosis on the Level of Exercise Amongst Patients With IBD.

Background And Aims: Inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] can impair patients' functional capacity with significant negative effects on their quality of life. Our aim was to determine the impact of IBD diagnosis on fitness levels and to assess the levels of engagement in physical activity and fatigue in IBD patient before and after diagnosis.

Methods: A prospective multi-centre cross-sectional study was performed.

Vitamin D deficiency in a European inflammatory bowel disease inception cohort: an Epi-IBD study.

Background: Serum vitamin D level is commonly low in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Although there is a growing body of evidence that links low vitamin D level to certain aspects of IBD such as disease activity and quality of life, data on its prevalence and how it varies across disease phenotype, smoking status and treatment groups are still missing.

Materials And Methods: Patients diagnosed with IBD between 2010 and 2011 were recruited.

Management of Paediatric Ulcerative Colitis, Part 2: Acute Severe Colitis-An Evidence-based Consensus Guideline From the European Crohn's and Colitis Organization and the European Society of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.

Background And Aim: Acute severe colitis (ASC) is one of the few emergencies in pediatric gastroenterology. Tight monitoring and timely medical and surgical interventions may improve outcomes and minimize morbidity and mortality. We aimed to standardize daily treatment of ASC in children through detailed recommendations and practice points which are based on a systematic review of the literature and consensus of experts.

Drug-induced bullous pemphigoid in diabetes mellitus patients receiving dipeptidyl peptidase-IV inhibitors plus metformin.

Background: Preclinical data and reports of adverse skin reactions in patients treated with dipeptidyl peptidase-IV inhibitors (gliptins) have increased awareness towards skin-targeting side-effects of these anti-hyperglycaemic drugs. Bullous pemphigoid (BP), sometimes drug-induced, is the most commonly acquired autoimmune blistering dermatosis in western countries, typically a disease of the elderly people with significant morbidity and excess mortality.

Objective: To report the development of BP in five diabetics under gliptin (4 vildagliptin, 1 sitagliptin) plus metformin in fixed-dose drug combinations.

Lower urinary tract involvement in patients with newly diagnosed autoimmune bullous dermatoses: an urethrocystoscopic study.

Introduction: To date, there are no published data assessing lower urinary tract involvement in patients with autoimmune bullous dermatoses (ABD).

Methods: Fourteen of 30 consecutive patients diagnosed with ABD between October 2007 and December 2008 consented to undergo a diagnostic video-recorded urethrocystoscopy: 9 patients (7 women and 2 men) with pemphigus vulgaris, 4 patients (2 women and 2 men) with bullous pemphigoid and 1 female patient with mucous membrane pemphigoid.

Results: None of the 14 patients complained of lower urinary tract symptoms.