ABSTRACT
Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease [NAFLD] is one of the most common causes of chronic liver disease worldwide. Recently several parameters, such as serum ferritin, have emerged as possible predictors for the severity of NAFLD and insulin sensitivity. We aimed to investigate the value of serum ferritin level as a useful biomarker for the prediction of histopathological disease severity in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis [NASH], the necro-inflammatory form of NAFLD
Methods: This was a prospective cross sectional study in which demographic, clinical, histological, laboratory, and anthropometric data of 30 adult patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD/NASH were analyzed
Results: In our patients population with mean age of 37.9 years and mean BMI of 26.5, statistical analysis did not show a significant difference between the three grades of steatosis in the mean ferritin levels [p=0.559]. It was also observed that ferritin level did not have a significant correlation with the stage of fibrosis [p =0.228]. The mean transferrin saturation did not show significant difference in different stages and grades of NASH [p =0.260 and 0.944, respectively], either
Conclusion: Serum ferritin level may not be useful as a single marker for the prediction of histopathological severity of disease in young patients with NASH who are not morbidly obese
ABSTRACT
Background: Anatomical variations in the biliary system have been proven to be of clinical importance. Awareness of the pattern of these variations in a specific population may help to prevent and manage biliary injuries during surgical and endoscopic procedures. Knowledge of the biliary anatomy will be also of great help in planning the drainage of adequate percentage of liver parenchyma in endoscopic or radiological procedures
Methods: All consecutive patients undergoing endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography [ERCP] from April 2013 to April 2015 at Nemazee Hospital, a referral center in the south of Iran, were included in this cross-sectional study. The patients with previous hepatic or biliary surgery, liver injury or destructive biliary disease were excluded from the study. All ERCPs were reviewed by two expert gastroenterologists in this field. The disagreed images by the two gastroenterologists were excluded. Huang classification was used for categorizing the different structural variants of the biliary tree, and the frequency of each variant was recorded
Results: Totally, 362 patients [181 men and 181 women] were included in the study. 163 patients [45%] had type Al Huang classification [right dominant], which was the most prevalent type among our patients. 55% of them had non-right dominant anatomy. The result of the Chi-square test revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between the men and women regarding the anatomical variations [p = 0.413]
Conclusion: The anatomical variation in the biliary system among Iranian patients is comparable to other regions of the world. Significant proportions of our patients are non-right dominant and may need bilateral biliary drainage
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Cholangiopancreatography, Endoscopic Retrograde , Anatomic Variation , Cross-Sectional StudiesABSTRACT
Pancreatic stent proximal migration is a well known complication of pancreatic duct stenting, which occurs in about 5-6% of cases. Serious complications should be avoided by retrieval of the stent via different endoscopic techniques. We report a new technique previously reported only once [in a pancreatic duct with underlying pathology], to remove the proximally migrated pancreatic stent in a normal pancreatic duct by SpyGlass Direct Visualization System [Boston Scientific, Natick, Massachusetts, USA] and SpyBite Forceps [Boston Scientific, Natick, Massachusetts, USA]