[ case report of gastrointestinal bleeding due to gastric lipoma]

Benign Gastric tumors are rare and generally account for less than 10% of all stomach tumors. Gastric lipoma is a rare tumor that constitutes approximately 3% of all benign tumors of the stomach and mainly is seen as a submucosal mass. Most gastric lipoma are asymptomatic and are found accidentally. Occasionally they can cause symptoms such as gastrointestinal bleeding, obstruction, abdominal pain and intussuception. CT scan and endoscopy are helpful in diagnosis. The main modality of treatment is surgery. Diagnosis is confirmed by histology. In this article, a patient with weakness, fatigue, and melena complaints is presented. On gastric endoscopy a yellowish submucosal mass was seen in antrum. Abdominal CT scan disclosed a mass with fat density resembling lipoma. The patient underwent surgery and diagnosis of lipoma was confirmed by histology. Although gastric lipoma is rare, it should be considered in the assessment and differential diagnosis of hemorrhagic submucosal masses in the stomach

[Report of a case with obscure GI bleeding in extramural pedunculated GIST]

Obscure gastrointestinal [GI] bleeding is defined when the source of GI bleeding could not be determined by upper endoscopy, colonoscopy or barium small bowel transit. In this report, a 41 year-old man presented with a history of over ten recurrent episodes of melena since four years prior to admission. The source of bleeding was not detected by multiple upper and lower GI endoscopies. During the last admission, other investigations which included small bowel transit, abdominal radioisotope scan and double balloon enteroscopy up to the mid-jejunum were all inconclusive. For more evaluation, an exploratory laparatomy and intra-operative endoscopy were planned. On laparatomy, a tumoral mass of 7 cm diameter was found on the inferior aspect of the stomach. The tumor was attached to the gastric wall by a 2 cm pedicle and connected into the gastric lumen via a small orifice which was not visible on endoscopic view. The tumor was resected with the surrounding gastric wall. Pathologic report favored pedunculated gastrointestinal stromal tumor [GIST] and confirmed with the positive CD117 antigen. Therefore, in the approach of patients with obscure GI bleeding, rare causes such as extramural pedunculated GIST should be considered

Behcet disease: clinical spectrum and association with hepatitis B and C viruses

We studied 48 patients with Behcet disease to determine the clinical spectrum of the disease. We also compared the seropositivity of patients for hepatitis B [HBV] and C [HCV] infection with a healthy control group to.determine whether there is an association. The major physical findings were oral aphthosis 93.8%, genital aphthosis 77.1% and ocular manifestations 64.6%. No patients were HCV antibody seropositive, but 3 of the control group [3.1%] tested seropositive. One patient [2.1%] and 2 in the control group [2.1%] tested positive for both HBV surface antigen and HBV core antibody. The differences were not statistically significant. There is, therefore, no case for recommending viral screening for HBV and HCV in Behcet disease patients at present