We present patients treated for hydatid disease in our hospital (in northeastern Greece) over the last 20 years. In the period from 1984 to 2003, a total of 135 patients (54 male, 81 female) were treated for echinococcal disease (age 15-85 years). In 111 (82.2%) patients only the liver was affected; 9 (6.7%) patients had concomitant hepatic and extrahepatic hydatid disease; and 15 (11.1%) patients had only extrahepatic disease. Clinical symptoms in patients with hepatic locations of the disease included abdominal pain localized in the epigastrium or right upper quadrant of the abdomen, tenderness, hepatomegaly with palpable abdominal mass, jaundice, fever, and anaphylactic reaction. All the patients were treated surgically. Surgical techniques included partial cystectomy and drainage, cystectomy and capitonage, cystectomy and omentoplasty, only drainage, left lateral hepatectomy, total pericystectomy, and laparoscopic pericystectomy. Rupture into the bile duct was managed by T-tube drainage or biliodigestive anastomosis. Symptoms and surgical treatment for extrahepatic cysts varied according to the location of the cyst. The median cyst diameter of all patients was 11 cm. The postoperative complication rate was 17.0%. Two patients died (1.5%). The median hospital stay was 18 days. The recurrence rate was 6.7%. The study suggests that treatment of this benign disease should be the less radical surgical technique combined with pre- and postoperative anthelmintic administration. The surgical treatment should be combined with careful use of scolicidal fluids and aspiration of the cyst to avoid contamination and minimize the risk of recurrence.

Peptide YY (PYY), a thirty-six amino acid intestinal hormonal peptide with a tyrosine residue at each end (hence YY as Y represents tyrosine in the new peptide nomenclature), was found throughout the gastrointestinal tract of the pig. Concentrations were very low in the foregut (antrum, 3.4 +/- 0.3 pmol/g; duodenum, 1.1 +/- 1.5 pmol/g), higher in the distal small intestine (ileum, 100 +/- 13 pmol/g) and very high in the large bowel (descending colon, 270 +/- 45 pmol/g). Peptide YY was found to circulate in plasma and concentrations rose substantially in response to eating (fasting, 138 +/- 15 pmol/l; postprandial, 263 +/- 21 pmol/l; P less than 0.001). There was a small but significant portal/arterial gradient in postprandial PYY levels. More than 90% of the immunoreactive PYY in gut extracts eluted, on gel permeation chromatography, in an identical position to pure PYY standard, but small amounts of higher molecular weight material, possibly precursors, were detected. In contrast, plasma from fasting pigs contained a large proportion (60-70%) of these large molecular forms. These findings suggest that the putative pro-PYY may be cleared more slowly from the circulation than the 36 amino acid hormonal peptide. The high concentrations of immunoreactive PYY in the circulation of the young pig may reflect a species difference between pig and man or may indicate an important role for PYY in the developing animal.

Seventy‐nine patients underwent subtotal or total adrenalectomy for pituitary‐dependent Cushing's syndrome (1953–1980); 76 survived the operation and 75 were followed for 1 to 27 (mean 11) years. Pigmentation, plasma ACTH, and sellar X‐rays were assessed at intervals. Pigmentation developed in 37 (5 before and 32 after operation), most frequently after total adrenalectomy. The sella was definitely enlarged in 6 of 65 patients before the operation and in 14 of 65 after it. Enlargement was more common in pigmented than in non‐pigmented patients. The plasma ACTH concentration rose after adrenalectomy. It was significantly higher in pigmented than in non‐pigmented patients. It was also higher after total than after subtotal adrenalectomy. Pituitary tumors were confirmed histologically in 15 patients. The tumors presented at the same time as the Cushing's syndrome in 8 and after adrenalectomy in 7. They were malignant and fatal in 6. Pigmentation, present in 11 of these patients, developed only after adrenalectomy. In 9 other patients with benign lesions and 21 with clinically probable but histologically unconfirmed tumors, 7 were treated by hypophysectomy with or without irradiation (4 cured, 3 improved), and 4 by irradiation alone: external 3, internal 1 (all improved).

Ghrelin and obestatin seem to play a significant role in IBD pathogenesis. Further studies are needed to elucidate the role of these hormones as new biological markers of activity of IBD.