Articles related to Gastroenterology

MDLinx compiled a reading list of captivating books that have nothing to do with medicine—but might just help physicians realize some things about their work — and life.

Working from the hypothesis that stomach ulcer bleeds in people on long-term low-dose aspirin therapy was secondary to H. pylori infection, this team gave antibiotic treatment to aspirin takers who test positive for the bacteria, and followed them for up to 7 years. Protection started rapidly and persisted, while diminishing somewhat, over the period of observation.

Among more than 200 adolescents 12 to 18 years of age over a 68-week period, nearly 75% of those in the treatment group experienced weight loss of > 5%, compared with only about 15% of those with placebo plus lifestyle intervention. GI adverse events were more common in the treatment group.

In this randomized trial from Poland, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands, the study population of approximately 85,000 individuals were randomly assigned to colonoscopy screening or usual care. The risk of colorectal cancer at 10 years was 18% lower in the screening cohort.

The study, led by Michael Bretthauer, MD, PhD, of the University of Oslo in Norway, found that people who were invited to have a screening colonoscopy had a lower risk of colorectal cancer than those who were not, though at a lower rate than researchers expected. Furthermore, no significant difference in colorectal cancer-related mortality was discovered between the two groups.

This MashupMD link provides a video critique on YouTube of an NEJM paper on colonoscopy screening.