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According to Reeders et al, ischemic colitis involves the left colon in 75% of the cases and the right colon in 8%. While surgery is indicated for the treatment of the gangrenous type of ischemic colitis, many patients with the transient or stricture type of the disease improve with bowel rest by fasting and parenteral fluid administration alone. However, healing is frequently delayed in patients with ulcerative lesions. Recently, the efficacy of rebamipide enema in the treatment of ulcerative colitis has been reported in Japan.

The percentage of older patients suffering from AUGIB has been increasing rapidly over the last years in the Western World. Elderly patients constitute a subgroup with special characteristics, which need careful handling during their hospitalization, because it is a population with considerable co-morbidity, higher medication use and greater risk for further complications. There has been limited information on the clinical outcome of the very elderly patients with AUGIB.

Conventional snare polypectomy or endoscopic mucosal resection often presents an unsatisfactory result in complete resection of rectal carcinoids. It was perfomed EMR-L with 3D-EUS for rectal carcinoids and compared between EMR-L with 3D-EUS and EMR-L alone. The rate of complete resection and the vertical resection margin has been reported.

BOSTON -- Concerns regarding the association of hormone therapy used to treat prostate cancer with cardiovascular disease in some older men may lead doctors to forgo hormone treatment solely on the basis of age. But a new study by physicians at Fox Chase Cancer Center shows that men over age 70 with high-risk prostate cancer lived longer and experienced increases in PSA less frequently when treated with long-term androgen deprivation therapy.

Chicago, IL – Harms and adverse events (untoward side effects of surgery or medicine) have been under-reported or poorly described at an alarming low rate by the publishing authors in the four leading otolaryngology medical journals, according to new research presented at the 2008 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO, in Chicago, IL.

Black Americans have a higher occurrence of colon polyps, according to a new study. This is a significant finding considering the incidence of colon cancer among black men has increased and remained unchanged among black women during the last 20 years.

The article will be published in the Sept. 24, issue of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association).

Work-related musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) is common among individuals whose job requires repetitive isometric maneuvers or awkward body positions. However, the prevalence of MSD among endoscopists is not well known. There are neither detailed descriptions nor analyses of the severity of the symptoms, risk factors, and management in eastern countries.

Clostridium difficile associated diarrhoea (CDAD) is the most common cause of healthcare-associated diarrhoea and results in a wide spectrum of disease severity ranging from asymptomatic carriage to life-threatening entero-colitis and death. While many studies have investigated risk factors for infection with C. difficile and subsequent development of CDAD, little is known about risk factors associated with a severe course of CDAD in hospitalised patients.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer with more than 1 million fatalities occurring annually worldwide. Nowadays in China, the essential oil of Curcuma wenyujin (CWO) has been used as injection to cure paediatric disease such as acute upper respiratory infections, viral myocarditis and acute pneumonia. Inhibitory effects of CWO on SMMC-7721 cell line, cervical cell, L615 cell and K562 cell lines growth have been reported.

Recent work demonstrates that GSK-3 beta is involved in the process of tumorigenesis, and inhibition of the expression and activity of GSK-3 beta attenuates cell proliferation and causes apoptosis in colorectal, pancreatic and ovarian cancer cells. Lithium is an existing drug for psychiatric diseases and its uptake has been linked to reduced tumor incidence compared to the general population, furthermore, lithium has been shown to be a specific and noncompetitive inhibitor of GSK-3 beta activity in vitro and in vivo.

HCV is acquired by intravenous drug abuse, sexually or via blood transfusion (rare nowadays due to the effective screening of blood products before transfusion). HCV is known to cause chronic infection in 80% - 90% of the patients getting infected. Patients presents with varying degrees of altered liver function ranging from mild cirrhosis to necrosis (liver cell death).

In conventional insulin gene therapy, exogenous insulin gene is usually transferred by caudal vein injection, portal vein injection, intraperitoneal injection, or intramuscular injection. They are invasive methods and can result in infections or death. The target cells in these methods mainly focus on hepatic cell and skeletal muscle cell. But hepatic cell and skeletal muscle cell are not endocrine cells. These cells usually need to be genetically modified in responsibility to glucose and processing from proinsulin to insulin.

Hepatic encephalopathy, a major complication of cirrhosis, is a clinical syndrome characterized by mental status changes in patients with severe hepatic insufficiency. Hormonal disorders and circadian rhythm abnormalities are often associated with liver disease, and severity of these disorders is related to liver disease severity and duration. The role of melatonin is critical, as diurnal melatonin rhythm disruption may significantly contribute to circadian function alterations.

The depth of transmural tumor invasion along the rectal wall layers and involvement of the regional lymph nodes constitute major factors in the prognosis of rectal cancer. Therefore accurate preoperative staging of rectal cancer carries a crucial importance in terms of therapy and prognosis. The utility of endorectal ultrasound and pelvic phased-array magnetic resonance imaging has been demonstrated well in the literature. However, studies comparing the diagnostic accuracies of these two techniques are rare.

In China, the incidence of liver cirrhosis is still high, although new therapeutic approaches have recently been proposed, there is no established therapy for liver fibrosis, and Authors investigated the prevention effects of Chinese Medicine Qianggan-Rongxian Soup on liver fibrosis induced by DMN in rat. Chinese Medicin Qianggan-Rongxian decoction can inhibit hepatic fibrosis resulted from chronic liver injure, retard the development of cirrhosis, and notably ameliorate the liver function. It may be a safe and effective therapeutic drug for patients with fibrosis.