TIPS proved more effective than glue injection in preventing rebleeding from gastric varices, with similar survival and frequency of complications.

The prognosis in these patients was extremely poor. Almost all patients died within 5 months if no further aggressive management was performed. Surgical intervention may be the optimal choice for palliative treatment of HCC with gastrointestinal tract involvement.

A 14-day levofloxacin/amoxicillin/esomeprazole triple therapy approach provides a >90% per-protocol report card with the caveat that this approach is markedly less effective in the presence of fluoroquinolone resistance. Levofloxacin-resistant strains are increasing in Taiwan.

The evidences on the association of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) to coronary heart diseases (CHD) are conflicting. In order to answer this important but yet unanswered clinical health issue, a large cohort study such as big data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database should be more convincing. Therefore, we aimed to make use of these big data source to analyze and clarify the relevance of H. pylori eradication and CHD risks. We looked through a total of 208196 patients with peptic ulcer diseases (PUD) from the years of 2000 to 2011. First, 3713 patients who received H. pylori eradication within 365 days of the index date were defined as the group A. We randomly selected the same number of patients as cohort A from 55249 non-eradication patients to be the comparison group B using propensity scores (including age, gender and comorbidity) so that we could control the confounding variables of CHD and mortality. Importantly, we perform sensitivity analysis for the time-dependent association between H. pylori eradication and risk of CHD, interactions between patient demographic characteristics and therapy by age (≥ or < 65 years old). The results showed that a trend of decreased association of CHD in patients with early eradication was observed compared to those without eradication (2.58% vs. 3.35%, p = 0.0905). The mortality rate was lower in early eradication subgroup compared to cohort B (2.86% vs. 4.43%, p = 0.0033). Interestingly, there was also significant difference observed in composite end-points for CHD and death in the early eradication subgroup (0.16% vs.0.57%, p = 0.0133). Further, the cumulative CHD rate was significantly lower in younger patients (< 65 years old) with H. pylori eradication therapy started < 1 year compared to those patients without eradication at all (p = 0.0384); the treatment did not appear to have an effect in older patients (≥ 65 years old) (p = 0.1963). Multivariate analysis showed that hypertension and renal diseases were risk factors for CHD in patients without eradication whilst younger age (< 65 years old) initiated with H. pylori therapy was a protective factor. In conclusion, the trend of decrease in CHD occurrence after early H. pylori eradication in addition to the significant decrease in composite end points for CHD and death, the significantly lower cumulative CHD rate in younger patients < 65 years old with H. pylori treated within 365 days suggested that there was positive association between H. pylori eradication and CHD.

There have been some breakthroughs in the diagnosis and treatment of esophageal achalasia in the past few years. First, the introduction of high-resolution manometry with pressure topography plotting as a new diagnostic tool has made it possible to classify achalasia into three subtypes. The most favorable outcome is predicted for patients receiving treatment for type II achalasia (achalasia with compression). Patients with type I(classic achalasia) and type III achalasia (spastic achalasia) experience a less favorable outcome. Second, the first multicenter randomized controlled trial published by the European Achalasia Trial group reported 2-year follow-up results indicating that laparoscopic Heller myotomy was not superior to endoscopic pneumatic dilation (PD). Although the follow-up period was not long enough to reach a convincing conclusion, it merits the continued use of PD as a generally available technique in gastroenterology. Third, the novel endoscopic technique peroral endoscopic myotomy is a promising option for treating achalasia, but it requires increased experience and cautious evaluation. Despite all this good news, the bottom line is a real breakthrough from the basic studies to identify the actual cause of achalasia that may impede treatment success is still anticipated.