Correlation between Neurotransmitters (Dopamine, Epinephrine, Norepinephrine, Serotonin), Prognostic Nutritional Index, Glasgow Prognostic Score, Systemic Inflammatory Response Markers, and TNM Staging in a Cohort of Colorectal Neuroendocrine Tumor Patients.

Neuroendocrine tumors are uncommon in the gastrointestinal system but can develop in the majority of the body's epithelial organs. Our goal was to examine the presence and clinical application of serum dopamine (DA), serotonin (ST), norepinephrine (NE), and epinephrine (EPI), in addition to determining the significance of the Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI), Glasgow Prognostic Score (GPS), and systemic inflammatory response (SIR) markers as a prognostic factor for patients with colorectal neuroendocrine tumors (CR-NETs), in various tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stages. We also wanted to identify the possible connection between them. This study included 25 consecutive patients who were diagnosed with CR-NETs and a control group consisting of 60 patients with newly diagnosed colorectal cancer (CRC). We used the Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) technique. This study revealed that CR-NET patients showed significantly higher serum levels of DA compared to CRC patients. We showed that serum DA was present in the early stages of CR-NETs, with increasing levels as we advanced through the TNM stages. Moreover, we found a close relationship between the levels of DA and the inflammation and nutritional status of the CR-NET patients in this study. CR-NET patients from the PNI < 47.00 subgroup had a higher level of DA than those from the PNI ≥ 47.00 subgroup. Pearson's correlation analysis revealed correlations between DA, PNI, and the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR). Both hematological indices were negatively correlated with albumin (ALB). Our investigation's findings relating to the PNI, GPS, SIR, and DA indicate that these tools can be markers of nutritional and systemic inflammatory status, are simple to use, and are repeatable. Further research on this topic could provide valuable insights into which biomarkers to incorporate into clinical practice for the management of CR-NET patients.

Prevalence and Risk Factors for Portal Cavernoma in Adult Patients with Portal Vein Thrombosis.

Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) represents a restriction or occlusion of the portal vein by a blood clot, which can appear in liver cirrhosis, inherited or acquired thrombophilia, malignancies, abdominal infection, abdominal inflammation, and injury to the portal vein; it can evolve to local venous extension, recanalization, or portal cavernoma (PC). This research represents an observational study of patients admitted with a diagnosis of PVT between January 2018 and December 2022. We assessed the rate of and risk factors for PC. In total, 189 patients with PVT were included; the rate of PC was 14.8%. In univariate and multivariate analysis, the main risk factors for the presence of PC were etiology (thrombophilia, myeloproliferative disorders, local inflammatory diseases, and idiopathic causes), prior PVT, and complete versus incomplete or single-branch portal obstruction. In patients with superior mesenteric vein (SMV) thrombosis, distal obstruction was more prone to PC than proximal obstruction. The main predictive factors were etiology, prior PVT, complete PVT obstruction, and no prior non-selective beta-blocker (NSBB) use; in patients with SMV thrombosis, the distal extension was more significantly associated with the risk of PC. We propose a composite score for the prediction of PC which includes etiology, prior diagnosis of PVT, prior NSBB use, complete versus incomplete PVT, and distal versus proximal SMV thrombosis, with good accuracy (AUC 0.822) and an estimated sensitivity of 76.92% and specificity of 82.39% at a cut-off value of 4.

Diagnostic Performance of an Artificial Intelligence Model Based on Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound in Patients with Liver Lesions: A Comparative Study with Clinicians.

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is widely used in the characterization of liver tumors; however, the evaluation of perfusion patterns using CEUS has a subjective character. This study aims to evaluate the accuracy of an automated method based on CEUS for classifying liver lesions and to compare its performance with that of two experienced clinicians. The system used for automatic classification is based on artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. For an interpretation close to the clinical setting, both clinicians knew which patients were at high risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but only one was aware of all the clinical data. In total, 49 patients with 59 liver tumors were included. For the benign and malignant classification, the AI model outperformed both clinicians in terms of specificity (100% vs. 93.33%); still, the sensitivity was lower (74% vs. 93.18% vs. 90.91%). In the second stage of multiclass diagnosis, the automatic model achieved a diagnostic accuracy of 69.93% for HCC and 89.15% for liver metastases. Readers demonstrated greater diagnostic accuracy for HCC (83.05% and 79.66%) and liver metastases (94.92% and 96.61%) compared to the AI system; however, both were experienced sonographers. The AI model could potentially assist and guide less-experienced clinicians to discriminate malignant from benign liver tumors with high accuracy and specificity.

Management of Anastomotic Leakage after Low Anterior Rectal Resections with Total Mesorectal Excision - A Retrospective Study.

Background: This study sought to investigate the diagnostic procedures, treatment modalities, and consequences of anastomotic leakage (AL) in low anterior resection rectal cancer patients. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 186 patients consecutively admitted and treated in the 1st Department of Surgery in Craiova, between January 2018 and June 2022, all of whom had undergone surgical interventions for adenocarcinoma of the rectum. Among this cohort, 106 patients who had undergone scheduled low and ultralow anterior rectal resections with total mesorectal excision were selected for further analysis. Twenty-four patients were diagnosed with postoperative AL and underwent diverse management strategies based on the severity of their condition. Results: The study revealed an incidence of 22.6% for postoperative AL, with all of them being classified as grade B and C, according to the 2010 International Study Group of Rectal Cancer Classification, which were associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Notably, patients exhibited various comorbidities, including obesity, arterial hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and kidney failure. The management approach depended on the severity of the clinical presentation and the availability of treatment options. Early diagnosis and conservative management constituted the initial therapeutic strategy for grade B AL, with surgical reintervention or transanal vacuum therapy being used in grade C AL. Conclusions: The incidence and mortality associated with AF following low anterior resections were notably elevated. Grade B AL were successfully managed through conservative treatment, whereas grade C AL required either surgical reintervention for drainage or diversion procedures, or transanal vacuum therapy.

The Reduction of After-Hours and Weekend Effects in Upper Gastro-intestinal Bleeding Mortality During the COVID-19 Pandemic Compared to the Pre-Pandemic Period.

Background: In upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB), admissions after normal working hours and during weekends may be associated with increased mortality. Aim: To assess the evolution of the after-hours and weekend effects during the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of progressive improved management despite management challenges during the pandemic. Methods: We performed an observational study of patients admitted for UGIB at a tertiary academic center between March 2020 and December 2021, compared to the corresponding timeframe before the pandemic. Admissions were assessed based on regular hours versus after-hours and weekdays versus weekends. We stratified patients based on demographic data, etiology, prognostic scores, the time between symptom onset and admission, as and between admission and endoscopy. The outcomes included mortality, rebleeding rate, the requirement for surgery and transfusion, and hospitalization days. Results: 802 cases were recorded during the pandemic, and 1006 cases before the pandemic. The overall mortality rate was 12.33%. Patients admitted after hours and during weekends had a higher mortality rate compared to those admitted during regular hours and weekdays (15.18% versus 10.22%, and 15.25% versus 11.16%), especially in cases of non-variceal bleeding. However, the difference in mortality rates was reduced by 2/3 during the pandemic, despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 infection. This suggests that there was an equalization effect of care in UGIB, regardless of the admission time. The differences observed in mortality rates for after-hours and weekend admissions seem to be primarily related to a higher proportion of patients who did not undergo endoscopy, while the proportion of severe cases remained similar. Blood requirements, hospital days, and rebleeding rate were similar between the two groups. Conclusion: Admissions during weekends and after-hours have been associated with increased mortality, particularly in cases of non-variceal bleeding. However, the impact of this association was significantly reduced during the pandemic.

Defining the short-term and long-term skin manifestations of COVID-19: insights after more than three years of the pandemic.

AIM: This review aimed to assess the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on skin health to establish a classification of the skin lesions that occur most frequently during the disease and whether a particular category of skin damage is more likely to occur both in the short term and in the long term. METHODS: We conducted a literature search of the PubMed database. Ultimately, 109 articles were included in this review. The exact phrases∕syntax and connectors used for the database search∕query were as follows: "Coronavirus and skin", "COVID-19 and skin", "SARS-CoV-2 and skin", "Coronavirus cutaneous manifestations", "COVID-19 cutaneous manifestations", "SARS-CoV-2 cutaneous manifestations", "Coronavirus dermatology", "SARS-CoV-2 and dermatology", "COVID-19 and dermatology", "COVID-19 and skin eruption", "Coronavirus and skin rash", "COVID-19 and hair", "Coronavirus and hair", "Coronavirus and nails", "SARS-CoV-2 and hair", and "SARS-CoV-2 and nails". Only articles with abstracts referring strictly to cutaneous manifestations of COVID-19 were chosen. Articles without abstracts were not considered. RESULTS: We established six of the most frequently reported clinical patterns associated with COVID-19 and their probability of occurring during COVID-19 disease evolution based on the current literature reports. We did not identify the particular types of skin lesions that are most prone to long-term persistence; most such cases are rare, and no conclusion can be drawn based on them. CONCLUSIONS: Apart from classified COVID-19-related skin disorders, this pandemic has been a challenge for dermatologists and a wide range of cutaneous side effects related to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) treatments have been reported. We are aware of other polymorphic clinical presentations, with novel data being reported periodically, but the pathophysiological mechanisms and evolution are largely unknown.

NLR48 is Better Than CRP, and mCTSI, and Similar to BISAP and SOFA Scores for Mortality Prediction in Acute Pancreatitis: A Comparison of 6 Scores.

Introduction: The neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been suggested as a reliable marker for predicting inflammation progression and severity of acute pancreatitis, although the role of the NLR stratified by etiology is still insufficiently studied. However, the NLR's role in mortality prediction was poorly evaluated in the literature. Patients and Methods: We performed a retrospective, cross-sectional study to analyze the role of NLR0 (at admission) and NLR48 (at 48 hours) in acute pancreatitis as compared with CRP, BISAP, SOFA, and modified CTSI (mCTSI) for the prediction of mortality and severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) in patients admitted into the Emergency Clinical County Hospital of Craiova during 48 months. The primary assessed outcomes were the rate of in-hospital mortality, the rate of persistent organ failure, and ICU admissions. We analyzed mortality prediction for all acute pancreatitis, for biliary, alcoholic, and hypertriglyceridemic acute pancreatitis, for severe forms, and for patients admitted to the ICU. Results: A total of 725 patients were selected; 42.4% had biliary acute pancreatitis, 27.7% had alcoholic acute pancreatitis, and 8.7% had hypertriglyceridemia-induced acute pancreatitis. A total of 13.6% had POF during admission. The AUC for NLR48 in predicting mortality risk and SAP was 0.81 and 0.785, superior to NLR0, CRP48, and mCTSI but inferior to BISAP and SOFA scores. The NLR48/NLR0 ratio did not add significantly to the accuracy. NLR0 and NLR48 performed poorly for mortality prediction in severe forms and in patients admitted to the ICU. NLR48 has good accuracy in our study for predicting death risk in biliary and alcoholic acute pancreatitis but not in hypertriglyceridemic acute pancreatitis. Conclusion: NLR48 was a good indicator in predicting mortality risk and severe forms in all patients with acute pancreatitis, but not of death in SAP and in patients admitted to ICU, with good accuracy for predicting death risk in biliary and alcoholic acute pancreatitis but not in hypertriglyceridemic acute pancreatitis.

Ventral Hernia Repair and Diabetes Mellitus - A Prospective, Observational and Comparative Study of Outcomes.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) and obesity are known to influence postoperative outcomes in surgical patients. This study aimed to analyze the divergence in outcomes between patients with and without DM who underwent ventral hernia repair, while also assessing the additional impact of obesity on postoperative complications, hospitalization, and costs. A prospective, non-interventional, observational study was conducted over five years (2018-2022) at the First Surgical Clinic of Craiova Emergency Clinical Hospital. The study included 216 patients, with 42 (19.44%) having DM, half of whom were also obese. There were no significant differences in age between patients with or without DM. However, diabetes and obesity were more prevalent in female patients. The mean duration of hospitalization was 10.7±8.6 days, with no significant differences observed between patients with or without DM or obesity. Statistical analysis revealed that patients with DM had a higher incidence of seroma formation, wound infection, and hematoma formation compared to patients without DM. However, there were no significant differences in mesh infection, hospitalization days, or costs between the two groups. Similarly, no significant differences were found between obese and non-obese patients in terms of complications, hospitalization days, or costs. In conclusion, this study highlights that DM is associated with an increased risk of specific complications in ventral hernia repair, including seroma formation, wound infection, and hematoma formation. However, the impact of obesity on these outcomes appears to be limited. Individualized preoperative optimization and targeted interventions are necessary to mitigate the risk of complications in patients with DM or obesity.

The Clinical Value of Multimodal Ultrasound for the Differential Diagnosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma from Other Liver Tumors in Relation to Histopathology.

Recent advances in the field of ultrasonography offer promising tools for the evaluation of liver tumors. We aim to assess the value of multimodal ultrasound in differentiating hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) from other liver lesions. We prospectively included 66 patients with 72 liver tumors. The histological analysis was the reference standard for the diagnosis of malignant liver lesions, and partially for benign tumors. All liver lesions were assessed by multiparametric ultrasound: standard ultrasound, contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), the point shear wave elastography (pSWE) using shear wave measurement (SWM) method and real-time tissue elastography (RTE). To diagnose HCCs, CEUS achieved a sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and positive predictive value (PPV) of 69.05%, 92.86%, 78.57% and 93.55%, respectively. The mean shear-wave velocity (Vs) value in HCCs was 1.59 ± 0.29 m/s, which was lower than non-HCC malignancies (p < 0.05). Using a cut-off value of 1.58 m/s, SWM achieved a sensitivity of 54.76%, and 82.35% specificity, for differentiating HCCs from other malignant lesions. The combination of SWM and CEUS showed higher sensitivity (79.55%) compared with each technique alone, while maintaining a high specificity (89.29%). In RTE, most HCCs (61.53%) had a mosaic pattern with dominant blue areas corresponding to type "c" elasticity. Elasticity type "c" was 70.59% predictive for HCCs. In conclusion, combining B-mode ultrasound, CEUS, pSWE and RTE can provide complementary diagnostic information and potentially decrease the requirements for other imaging modalities.

Ventral Hernia Repair and Drainage - A Prospective, Observational, and Comparative Study of Outcomes.

Background: While ventral hernia repair is a frequent surgical intervention, the possibility of complications remains present. The use of drains to mitigate complications is a topic of debate, with conflicting evidence. This study aimed to evaluate the association between drain usage and postoperative complications in ventral hernia repair. Materials and Methods: A single-center prospective study included patients undergoing ventral hernia repair from 2018 to 2022. Patient data and surgical techniques were recorded. Statistical analysis was performed to assess risk factors for drain insertion and complications. Results: Of the 216 patients included, 19.44% had diabetes, and 20% had cancer. Postoperative complications (Clavien Dindo grade IIIB) occurred in 9.3% of cases, resulting in a 3.7% mortality. Decision factors for drain insertion included older age, larger hernia size, bowel resection with anastomosis, emergency setting and the need for adhesiolysis. No differences were found between the two groups regarding seroma and hematoma formation and mesh infection. Patients with drains had a longer hospital stay and higher costs. Conclusion: The decision to use drains in ventral hernia repair was influenced by surgical complexity factors rather than patient characteristics. While drain usage did not correlate with postoperative morbidities, it was associated with longer hospitalization and higher costs. Individualized decision-making is crucial to balance complications and resource utilization in ventral hernia repair.

Outcomes in Patients Admitted for Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding and COVID-19 Infection: A Study of Two Years of the Pandemic.

Upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) represents a major emergency, and patient management requires endoscopic assessment to ensure appropriate treatment. The impact of COVID-19 on patient mortality in UGIB may be related to the combination of respiratory failure and severe bleeding and indirectly to delayed admissions or a reduction in endoscopic procedures. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study involving patients admitted between March 2020 and December 2021 with UGIB and confirmed. Our objective was to compare these types of patients with those negative for SARS-CoV-2 infection, as well as with a pre-pandemic group of patients admitted between May 2018 and December 2019. RESULTS: Thirty-nine patients (4.7%) with UGIB had an active COVID-19 infection. A higher mortality rate (58.97%) and a high risk of death (OR 9.04, p < 0.0001) were noted in the COVID-19 pandemic, mostly because of respiratory failure; endoscopy was not performed in half of the cases. Admissions for UGIB have decreased by 23.7% during the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 infection in patients admitted for UGIB was associated with a higher mortality rate because of respiratory failure and possible delays in or contraindications of treatment.

Predicting mortality in patients with nonvariceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding using machine-learning.

Background: Non-endoscopic risk scores, Glasgow Blatchford (GBS) and admission Rockall (Rock), are limited by poor specificity. The aim of this study was to develop an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for the non-endoscopic triage of nonvariceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding (NVUGIB), with mortality as a primary outcome. Methods: Four machine learning algorithms, namely, Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), Quadratic Discriminant Analysis (QDA), logistic regression (LR), K-Nearest Neighbor (K-NN), were performed with GBS, Rock, Beylor Bleeding score (BBS), AIM65, and T-score. Results: A total of 1,096 NVUGIB hospitalized in the Gastroenterology Department of the County Clinical Emergency Hospital of Craiova, Romania, randomly divided into training and testing groups, were included retrospectively in our study. The machine learning models were more accurate at identifying patients who met the endpoint of mortality than any of the existing risk scores. AIM65 was the most important score in the detection of whether a NVUGIB would die or not, whereas BBS had no influence on this. Also, the greater AIM65 and GBS, and the lower Rock and T-score, the higher mortality will be. Conclusion: The best accuracy was obtained by the hyperparameter-tuned K-NN classifier (98%), giving the highest precision and recall on the training and testing datasets among all developed models, showing that machine learning can accurately predict mortality in patients with NVUGIB.

The Accuracy of Pre-Endoscopic Scores for Mortality Prediction in Patients with Upper GI Bleeding and No Endoscopy Performed.

(1) Background: The assessment of mortality and rebleeding rate in upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) is essential, and several prognostic scores have been proposed. Some patients with UGIB did not undergo endoscopy, either because they refused the procedure, suffered from alcohol withdrawal symptoms or altered general status, or because the bleeding was severe enough to cause death before the endoscopy. The mortality risk in the subgroup of patients without endoscopy is poorly evaluated in the literature. (2) Methods: The purpose of the study was to identify the most useful scores for the assessment of in-hospital mortality in patients with UGIB with no endoscopy performed and no known etiology. A total of 198 patients with UGIB and no endoscopy performed were admitted between January 2017 and December 2021 and the accuracy of 12 prognostic scores and the Charlson comorbidity index for in-hospital mortality prediction were analyzed, as well as Child-Pugh Turcotte (CPT) and Meld scores in patients with cirrhosis. (3) Results: The mortality rate was 37.9%, higher than in variceal (21.9%, p < 0.0001) and non-variceal bleeding (7.4%, p < 0.0001). The most accurate scores by AUC were the International Bleeding score (INBS, 0.844), Glasgow Blatchford (0.783), MAP score (0.78), Iino (0.766), AIM65 and modified N-score (0.745 each), modified Glasgow-Blatchford (0.73), H3B2 and N-score (0.701); Rockall, Baylor, and T-score had an AUC below 0.7. MELD score was superior to CPT in patients with cirrhosis (AUC 0.811 versus 0.670). (4) Conclusions: The mortality rate in UGIB with no endoscopy was higher than in both variceal and non-variceal bleeding and was higher in the pandemic period but with no statistical significance (45.3% versus 32.14%, p = 0.0586), mainly because of positive cases. Only one case of rebleeding was noted; the hospitalization period was significantly shorter. The most accurate score was International Bleeding Score; the MELD score had a higher but moderate accuracy compared with CPT in patients with cirrhosis.

Preoperative Immunocite-Derived Ratios Predict Surgical Complications Better when Artificial Neural Networks Are Used for Analysis-A Pilot Comparative Study.

We aimed to comparatively assess the prognostic preoperative value of the main peripheral blood components and their ratios-the systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR)-to the use of artificial-neural-network analysis in determining undesired postoperative outcomes in colorectal cancer patients. Our retrospective study included 281 patients undergoing elective radical surgery for colorectal cancer in the last seven years. The preoperative values of SII, NLR, LMR, and PLR were analyzed in relation to postoperative complications, with a special emphasis on their ability to accurately predict the occurrence of anastomotic leak. A feed-forward fully connected multilayer perceptron network (MLP) was trained and tested alongside conventional statistical tools to assess the predictive value of the abovementioned blood markers in terms of sensitivity and specificity. Statistically significant differences and moderate correlation levels were observed for SII and NLR in predicting the anastomotic leak rate and degree of postoperative complications. No correlations were found between the LMR and PLR or the abovementioned outcomes. The MLP network analysis showed superior prediction value in terms of both sensitivity (0.78 ± 0.07; 0.74 ± 0.04; 0.71 ± 0.13) and specificity (0.81 ± 0.11; 0.69 ± 0.03; 0.9 ± 0.04) for all the given tasks. Preoperative SII and NLR appear to be modest prognostic factors for anastomotic leakage and overall morbidity. Using an artificial neural network offers superior prognostic results in the preoperative risk assessment for overall morbidity and anastomotic leak rate.

The influence of SARS-CoV-2 on the immune system elements and on the placental structure. Clinical, histological and immunohistochemical study.

BACKGROUND: The effects of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection during pregnancy remain relatively unknown. AIM: We present this original paper where we analyzed 60 parturients, at term, 30 without associated infection (C-) and 30 with associated infection (C+), present at birth. METHODS: We analyzed the blood count and placental microscopic structure through classical and immunohistochemical staining and observed the placental areas affected by the presence of SARS-CoV-2. RESULTS: SARS-CoV-2 infection was accompanied by a decrease in the number of lymphocytes, the number of platelets and the presence of placental structural changes, identifying extensive areas of amyloid deposits, placental infarcts, vascular thrombosis, syncytial knots, with a decrease in placental vascular density and the presence of infection in the cells located at decidual level, at syncytiotrophoblast level and at the level of the cells of the chorionic plate, still without overcoming this barrier and without causing any fetal infection in the analyzed cases. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the invasion of SARS-CoV-2 in the placenta can produce significant structural changes, with a decrease in placental vascular density that can have significant implications on proper fetal perfusion. Also, the presence of immunoreactivity at the level of decidua, the placental villi, as well as the chorionic plate proves that the virus can overcome the maternal-fetal barrier. However, in the analyzed cases there were no fetal infections at birth, which may show that local placental factors can be a protective filter for the fetus.

Lichtenstein Repair in Inguinal Hernia- A Retrospective Study on the Impact of In-Hospital Costs of Diabetes Mellitus.

INTRODUCTION: Inguinal hernia is one of the most common conditions in surgical departments and diabetes is known to have a significant impact on both patients' health and healthcare system. The current study aims to evaluate extensively the differences in costs for different subgroups of diabetic patients undergoing inguinal hernia repair in a tertiary care medical center in South-West Romania. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total number of 195 patients underwent hernia repair for primary or recurrent inguinal hernia between 2015 and 2020 and were included in the analysis. The group was divided into diabetic/non-diabetic patients and each of these subgroups was studied separately according to the presence or absence of comorbidities, sex and place of origin. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences were found in the division of the age group, highlighting the fact that in diabetic patients the average age was around 74.76 years, unlike those without diabetes in which the average age was approximately 61.31 years. Another statistically significant difference was observed in the classification by hospitalization days of the group of patients with incarcerated inguinal hernia, in a sense that diabetic patients required a prolonged hospitalization by 1.5 days as opposed to non-diabetics. CONCLUSIONS: The costs of hospitalization for diabetic patients undergoing hernia repair surgery were marginally higher than in non-diabetic patients, but no statistical difference could be observed between any of the costs subsets in the two patients groups.

Mortality Rate in Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding Associated with Anti-Thrombotic Therapy Before and During Covid-19 Pandemic.

Introduction: During the last few years, a progressive higher proportion of patients have had upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) related to antithrombotic therapy. The introduction of direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) and COVID-19 pandemic may change the incidence, mortality, and follow-up, especially in patients at high risk of bleeding. Patients and Methods: We studied the use of anti-thrombotic therapy (AT) in patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding for 5 years (January 2017-December 2021) including Covid-19 pandemic period (March 2020-December 2021). We analyzed mortality rate, rebleeding rate and need for transfusion in patients with AT therapy compared with those without AT therapy and risk factors for mortality, and also the incidence of gastrointestinal bleeding in patients admitted for COVID-19 infection. Results: A total of 824 patients were admitted during Covid-19 pandemic period and 1631 before pandemic period; a total of 426 cases of bleeding were recorded in patients taking antithrombotic therapy and the frequency of antithrombotic therapy in patients with UGIB was higher in pandemic period (24.39% versus 13.8%). Unadjusted mortality was 12.21%, similar with patients with no antithrombotic treatment but age-adjusted mortality was 9.62% (28% lower). The rate of endoscopy was similar but fewer therapeutic procedures were required. Mean Hb level was 10% lower, and more than 60% of patients required blood transfusion. Conclusion: Mortality was similar compared with patients with no antithrombotic therapy, fewer therapeutic endoscopies were performed and similar rebleeding rate and emergency surgery were noted. Hb level was 10% lower and a higher proportion of patients required blood transfusions. Mortality was higher in DOAC treatment group compared with VKA patients but with no statistical significance. The rate of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in Covid-19 positive hospitalized cases was 0.58%. The mortality risk in multivariate analysis was associated with GB score, with no endoscopy performed, with obscure and variceal bleeding and with LMWH versus VKA therapy.

Gastric Cancer Angiogenesis Assessment by Dynamic Contrast Harmonic Imaging Endoscopic Ultrasound (CHI-EUS) and Immunohistochemical Analysis-A Feasibility Study.

Tumor vascular perfusion pattern in gastric cancer (GC) may be an important prognostic factor with therapeutic implications. Non-invasive methods such as dynamic contrast harmonic imaging endoscopic ultrasound (CHI-EUS) may provide details about tumor perfusion and could also lay out another perspective for angiogenesis assessment. Methods: We included 34 patients with GC, adenocarcinoma, with CHI-EUS examinations that were performed before any treatment decision. We analyzed eighty video sequences with a dedicated software for quantitative analysis of the vascular patterns of specific regions of interest (ROI). As a result, time-intensity curve (TIC) along with other derived parameters were automatically generated: peak enhancement (PE), rise time (RT), time to peak (TTP), wash-in perfusion index (WiPI), ROI area, and others. We performed CD105 and CD31 immunostaining to calculate the vascular diameter (vd) and the microvascular density (MVD), and the results were compared with CHI-EUS parameters. Results: High statistical correlations (p < 0.05) were observed between TIC analysis parameters MVD and vd CD31. Strong correlations were also found between tumor grade and 7 CHI-EUS parameters, p < 0.005. Conclusions: GC angiogenesis assessment by CHI-EUS is feasible and may be considered for future studies based on TIC analysis.

Role of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasonography in Hepatocellular Carcinoma by Using LI-RADS and Ancillary Features: A Single Tertiary Centre Experience.

Clinical utility of ancillary features (AFs) in contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS®) is yet to be established. In this study, we assessed the diagnostic yield of CEUS LI-RADS and AFs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We retrospectively included patients with risk factors for HCC and newly diagnosed focal liver lesions (FLL). All lesions have been categorized according to the CEUS LI-RADS v2017 by an experienced sonographer blinded to clinical data and to the final diagnosis. From a total of 143 patients with 191 FLL, AFs favoring HCC were observed in 19.8% cases as hypoechoic rim and in 16.7% cases as nodule-in nodule architecture. From the total of 141 HCC cases, 83.6% were correctly classified: 57.4%- LR-5 and 26.2%- LR-4. In 9.21% cases, CEUS indicated LR-M; 2.12% cases- LR-3. The LR-5 category was 96.2% predictive (PPV) of HCC. LR-5 had 60.4% sensitivity and 93.6% specificity. PPV for primitive malignancy (LR-4 + LR-5) was 95.7%, with 88% sensitivity, 89.3% specificity and 88.4% accuracy for HCC. LR-4 category had 94.8% PPV and 26.2% sensitivity. CEUS LR4 + LR5 had 81,8% sensitivity for HCCs over 2 cm and 78.57% sensitivity for smaller HCCs. CEUS LR-5 remains an excellent diagnostic tool for HCC, despite the size of the lesion. The use of AFs might improve the overarching goal of LR-5 + LR-4 diagnosis of high specificity for HCC and exclusion of non-HCC malignancy.

Clostridioides difficile Infection among Cirrhotic Patients with Variceal Bleeding.

Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) stands as the leading cause of nosocomial infection with high morbidity and mortality rates, causing a major burden on the healthcare system. Driven by antibiotics, it usually affects older patients with chronic disease or immunosuppressed or oncologic management. Variceal bleeding secondary to cirrhosis requires antibiotics to prevent bacterial translocation, and thus patients become susceptible to CDI. We aimed to investigate the risk factors for CDI in cirrhotic patients with variceal bleeding following ceftriaxone and the mortality risk in this patient's population. We retrospectively screened 367 cirrhotic patients with variceal bleeding, from which 25 patients were confirmed with CDI, from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2019. We found MELD to be the only multivariate predictor for mortality (odds ratio, OR = 1.281, 95% confidence interval, CI: 0.098-1.643, p = 0.042). A model of four predictors (age, days of admission, Charlson index, Child-Pugh score) was generated (area under the receiver operating characteristics curve, AUC = 0.840, 95% CI: 0.758-0.921, p < 0.0001) to assess the risk of CDI exposure. Determining the probability of getting CDI for cirrhotic patients with variceal bleeding could be a tool for doctors in taking decisions, which could be integrated in sustainable public health programs.