ABSTRACT
Background: To evaluate relation between air pollution and rate of flare and hospital admission among inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] patients
Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, during a 10 months period, the number and average duration of hospitalization of patients admitted in GI ward due to IBD flare were recorded in an industrial capital city. Concomitantly the level of 4 major air pollutants including SO[2], CO, NO[2] and O[3] measured and the correlation between severity of IBD flare and air pollution determined by Pearson correlation coefficient
Results: Average number of admission was 7 patients per month [1-12]. This figure for Crohn's disease [CD] was 2.9 and 3.7 for ulcerative colitis [UC]. The average duration of hospitalization for UC and CD were 2.8 days [1-13] and 2.9 days [1-22] respectively. After comparison of average concentration of 4 major air pollutants with rate of IBD flare, there was a relation, although non-meaningful, between CO concentration and number and duration of admissions due to UC flare [p=0.135 and 0.08, correlation coefficient 0.196 and 0.251 respectively]. DATA analysis did not reveal any significant relation between SO[2] and NO[2] and the rate of admission due to IBD flare [p>0.05] and Interestingly there were a reverse meaningful correlation between concentration of O[3] and number and duration of admissions due to Crohn's disease flare [p=0.016 and 0.006, Correlation Coefficient-0.338 and -0.413 respectively]
Conclusion: It seems that CO as one of the major air pollutants can aggravates course of ulcerative colitis and on the other hand O[3] could have a potential protective effect on Crohn's disease. This issue should further be clarified in future studies
ABSTRACT
Acute pancreatitis is the most common serious complication of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography [ERCP] that can occasionally be fatal. Multiple drugs have been examined for the prevention of this side effect, with generally uncertain results. This study is an effort to prevent this complication by the use of oral N-acetyl cysteine [NAC]. A total of 100 patients who were candidates for ERCP were divided randomly into two groups. In the NAC [N] group, patients received 1200 mg NAC with 150 cc water orally 2 h before ERCP. In the placebo [P] group, 150 cc water was prescribed as a placebo. We measured serum amylase and lipase levels before and 24 h after ERCP. The prevalence of pancreatitis and duration of admission in each group were determined and compared. In group N there were 5 [10%] cases of pancreatitis, whereas in group P there were 14 [28%] cases, which was significant [risk reduction ratio: 2.8; p=0.02].The average admission time was 1.16 +/- 0.55 days in group N and 1.18 +/- 0.44 days in group P, which was not significant. There were significant differences in the prevalence of acute pancreatitis between the two groups. In addition, the number of need to treat [NNT] consisted of five cases for NAC. With regards to the above results and the safety profile of NAC, it could be used as a therapeutic agent for the prevention of post-ERCP pancreatitis. We recommend that the results of this study be verified by additional clinical trials