• A new study demonstrated that TRC101, a hydrochloric acid binder for the treatment of metabolic acidosis associated with chronic kidney disease, provided a rapid and sustained average increase in serum bicarbonate.
• All adverse effects were mild or moderate.
• In an analysis of published studies, individuals who used proton pump inhibitors had a 33% increased relative risk of developing chronic kidney disease or kidney failure when compared with non-users.
• Results from the analysis will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2017 October 31–November 5 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, LA.
Compared to controls, patients with psoriasis (PsO) are at higher risk for serious liver disease than patients with rheumatoid arthritis – two autoimmune diseases often treated with similar drugs that can cause liver damage.
Regularly drinking sugar-sweetened beverages such as soda and juice contributes to the development of diabetes, high blood pressure and other endemic health problems, according to a review of epidemiological studies published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.
Many people who smoke or chew tobacco can’t seem to escape nicotine’s addictive properties. Studies show that women in particular seem to have a harder time quitting, even with assistance, when compared to men. Now, scientists report in a mouse study published in ACS’ journal Chemical Research in Toxicology that the difference in gender smoking patterns and smoking’s effects could be due to how nicotine impacts the brain-gut relationship.
Colon cancer, Crohn’s, and other diseases of the gut could be better treated – or even prevented – thanks to a new link between inflammation and a common cellular process, established by the University of Warwick.
In a new study published today in Menopause, researchers have found that the hot flashes and night sweats faced by upward of 80 percent of middle-aged women may be linked to an increased risk of obstructive sleep apnea.
A Montreal Clinical Research Institute discovery sheds light on osteocalcin, a hormone produced by our bones that affects how we metabolize sugar and fat.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine researchers report that the composition of people’s gut bacteria may explain why some of them suffer life-threatening reactions after taking a key drug for treating metastatic colorectal cancer. The findings, described online today in npj Biofilms and Microbiomes, a Nature research journal, could help predict which patients will suffer side effects and prevent complications in susceptible patients.
An efficacy and safety study of two treatment models for patients with Crohn’s disease has found that monitoring both inflammation biomarkers and symptoms led to superior outcomes compared to clinical management of symptoms alone.
Sbarro Health Research Organization President Antonio Giordano introduces program at National Italian American Foundation 42nd Anniversary Gala Weekend In Washington D.C.
A new study explains how a widely used drug is effective against inflammatory bowel disease and rejection of bone marrow transplants, while suggesting another way to address both health issues.
Last week, 65 bipartisan Members of both the U.S. Senate
and House of Representatives sent letters to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) urging the re-inclusion
and inclusion of eating disorders surveillance questions within the CDC national surveillance systems.
Loyola Medicine health psychologist Sarah Kinsinger, PhD, ABPP, has co-founded the new Psychogastroenterology Section of the Rome Foundation, the first international organization dedicated to the research and practice of psychosocial gastroenterology.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a pathway in the brain that seems to connect exposure to adverse experiences during early childhood with depression and problems with physical health in teens and preteens.
Scientists and physicians at Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health, in partnership with colleagues at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, Johns Hopkins University in Maryland and elsewhere, have been awarded a $7 million grant over four years by Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) to create a “dream team” to develop new ways to prevent pancreatic cancer — one of the nation’s deadliest malignancies.
Deeply entrenched and mature by the time it’s found, pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest to defeat. A Dream Team assembled by Stand Up to Cancer and led by an investigator at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center will test new ways to find the disease in its emerging, more vulnerable phase in people who are at high risk for developing it.
Women account for half of all cases of high blood pressure (hypertension) in the U.S., yet the majority of hypertension research focuses on men. A review of more than 80 studies highlights sex differences in hypertension-related kidney (renal) disease and explores possible reasons why women respond differently than men. The article, published in the American Journal of Physiology—Renal Physiology, emphasizes the need for more hypertension research in females.
A team of researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have discovered how uncontrolled vitamin A metabolism in the gut can cause harmful inflammation. The discovery links diet to inflammatory diseases, like Crohn’s disease and inflammatory bowel syndromes, and could inform nutritional interventions.
By combining engineered polymeric materials known as hydrogels with complex intestinal tissue known as organoids – made from human pluripotent stem cells – researchers have taken an important step toward creating a new technology for controlling the growth of these organoids and using them for treating wounds in the gut that can be caused by disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Health care costs for privately insured patients with alcoholic cirrhosis are nearly twice that of non‐alcoholic cirrhosis patients in the United States, according to research presented this week at The Liver Meeting® — held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.
A new study presented this week at The Liver Meeting® – held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases – found that liver cirrhosis mortality is greater than that of five major cancers, implying the development of appropriate interventions to treat or prevent liver cirrhosis must be prioritized.
Research presented this week at The Liver Meeting® – held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases – shows people in treatment for opioid substance abuse significantly lowered their non‐prescribed opioid use after testing positive for hepatitis C virus.
Twin brothers Logan and Liam Chang were born on Dec. 29, 2016, seven weeks premature, at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica. One of them was able to receive specialized care at Providence Saint John’s NICU and emergency surgery at Children's Hospital Los Angeles for a complex condition, thanks to the new partnership.
Virginia Mason Medical Center was recognized by Healthgrades today as one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals™ for cardiac care, coronary intervention, pulmonary care, general surgery, gastrointestinal care and critical care.
Orlando, FL (October 16, 2017)—Irving M. Pike, MD, FACG, a physician hospital executive and expert on endoscopic quality indicators, was elected by the membership as the 2017-2018 President of the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG), a national medical organization representing more than 14,000 clinical gastroenterologists and other specialists in digestive diseases. Dr. Pike officially took his position as President during the College’s Annual Scientific Meeting at the World Congress of Gastroenterology at ACG2017, held this week in Orlando. In this position, Dr. Pike will direct ACG’s programs which include continuing medical education in the clinical, scientific and patient-related skills of gastroenterology, activities involving national and state medical affairs, health policy issues, and clinical investigation.
Orlando, FL (October 16, 2017) – More than 5,000 gastroenterologists and other health care professionals from nearly 70 countries around the world will convene at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL for the World Congress of Gastroenterology at ACG2017 Annual Scientific Meeting and Postgraduate Course (WCOG at ACG2017) to review the latest scientific advances in gastrointestinal research, treatment of digestive diseases and clinical practice management.
Orlando, FL (October 13, 2017) – The American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) announces the winners of the 2017 SCOPY Awards (Service Award for Colorectal Cancer Outreach, Prevention and Year-Round Excellence) to recognize the achievements of ACG members in their community engagement, education and awareness efforts for colorectal cancer prevention.
CicloMed LLC announced that its development candidate for non-muscle-invasive and muscle-invasive bladder cancer, Ciclopirox Prodrug, was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin human clinical trials. With this clearance, CicloMed plans to initiate the first-in-human safety trial in patients with advanced solid tumor cancers as soon as possible at several centers, including The University of Kansas Cancer Center. Discovered by a multidisciplinary team of researchers at KU Cancer Center, Ciclopirox Prodrug was licensed to CicloMed LLC, a subsidiary of Kansas City-based BioNOVUS Innovations LLC, in November 2015.
Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have identified cells in the upper digestive tract that can give rise to Barrett’s esophagus, a precursor to esophageal cancer.
Radiologists can enhance the quality and effectiveness of care with the newest release of the ACR Appropriateness Criteria®. The latest edition covers 178 diagnostic imaging and interventional radiology topics with 890 clinical variants. Diagnostic imaging topics now cover 1,570 clinical scenarios.
A new mouse study found that, even in immunized animals, noroviruses can escape the immune system and still spread by hiding out in an extremely rare type of cell in the gut.
Myron Schwartz, MD, the Henry Kaufmann Professor of Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Director of Liver Surgery at the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute, has been named as the 2017 Physician of the Year by the American Liver Foundation’s Greater New York Division.
Despite a diagnosis of stage IV pancreatic cancer and ongoing chemotherapy, Mike Levine boarded a plane this past weekend destined for Kona, Hawaii, where he will compete in one of the most grueling of physical competitions: the Ironman World Championship. Cheering him on will be his wife Jan, friends and Paul Fanta, MD, a pancreatic cancer expert with Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health who has been treating Levine since 2016.
Approximately 10 percent of Americans take a proton pump inhibitor drug to relieve symptoms of frequent heartburn and acid reflux. That percentage can be much higher for people with chronic liver disease. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have discovered evidence in mice and humans that these medications alter gut bacteria in a way that promotes three types of chronic liver disease. The study is published October 10 in Nature Communications.
Adam J. Goodman, MD, specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the digestive system, particularly diseases of the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, colon, and rectum, as well as obstructions of the bile duct and GI tract.
In the November 2017 issue of Diseases of the Colon and Rectum, Dr. Charlène Brochard and her colleagues from a spina bifida referral center in Rennes, France, report on the frequency of intestinal problems in 26- to 45-year-old patients with spina bifida. The multidisciplinary study included clinical data obtained over a 9-year period on nearly 400 spina bifida patients, emphasizing the association of obesity with fecal incontinence and bowel dysfunction.
A team of researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health has received a $3.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how gut bacteria play a role in the development of diabetes among residents of Starr County, Texas.
New discoveries about the mechanism responsible for heat generation in the body related to fat tissue oppose classical views in the field and could lead to new ways to fight metabolic disorders associated with obesity, according to a study led by Georgia State University.
Scientists have determined that fungus may play a key role in chronic intestinal inflammation disorders. They found that patients with Crohn’s disease tend to have much higher levels of the fungus Candida tropicalis compared to their healthy family members. A new review published in Digestive and Liver Disease looks at these findings and provides insights into potential new therapeutic approaches using antifungals and probiotics in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as Crohn’s disease (CD).
BOSTON – (October 3, 2017) – If you’re one of the two billion people in the world who are over-weight or obese, or the one billion people with fatty liver disease, your doctor’s first advice is to cut calories—and especially to cut down on concentrated sugars such as high-fructose corn syrup, a sugar found in sweetened beverages and many other processed foods.
Pembrolizumab, a drug that has effectively extended the lives of countless people with many types of cancer, has now been approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to treat people with metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma, the most common form of stomach cancer. The research that led to the approval was conducted at UCLA and 67 other sites in the U.S., Europe, South America and Asia.
Proactive monitoring of blood levels of the therapeutic drug infliximab was associated with improved outcomes including lower risk of surgery and hospitalization.
Shlomo Melmed, MB, ChB, executive vice president, Academic Affairs, and dean of the medical faculty at Cedars-Sinai, has won the 2018 Outstanding Scholarly Physician Award from the Endocrine Society, the largest global membership organization representing professionals in endocrinology. The annual award recognizes outstanding contributions to the practice of clinical endocrinology in academic settings.