Highlights Established blood tests can be used in primary care to stratify patients with fatty liver disease. A 2-step pathway (FIB-4 followed by ELF TM if required) reduced unnecessary referrals by 80%. This pathway also improved the detection of cases of advanced fibrosis 5-fold and cirrhosis 3-fold. This pathway can be used in primary care to identify patients who might benefit from referral to liver specialists. This should reduce unnecessary referrals while at the same time improving the detection of cirrhosis.

Background The identification of patients with advanced liver fibrosis secondary to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) remains challenging. Using non-invasive liver fibrosis tests (NILT) in primary care may permit earlier detection of patients with clinically significant disease for specialist review, and reduce unnecessary referral of patients with mild disease. We constructed an analytical model to assess the clinical and cost differentials of such strategies. Methods A probabilistic decisional model simulated a cohort of 1000 NAFLD patients over 1 year from a healthcare payer perspective. Simulations compared standard care (SC) (scenario 1) to: Scenario 2: FIB-4 for all patients followed by Enhanced Liver Fibrosis (ELF) test for patients with indeterminate FIB-4 results; Scenario 3: FIB-4 followed by fibroscan for indeterminate FIB-4; Scenario 4: ELF alone; and Scenario 5: fibroscan alone. Model estimates were derived from the published literature. The primary outcome was cost per case of advanced fibrosis detected. Results Introduction of NILT increased detection of advanced fibrosis over 1 year by 114, 118, 129 and 137% compared to SC in scenarios 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively with reduction in unnecessary referrals by 85, 78, 71 and 42% respectively. The cost per case of advanced fibrosis (METAVIR ≥F3) detected was £25,543, £8932, £9083, £9487 and £10,351 in scenarios 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. Total budget spend was reduced by 25.2, 22.7, 15.1 and 4.0% in Scenarios 2, 3, 4 and 5 compared to £670 K at baseline. Conclusion Our analyses suggest that the use of NILT in primary care can increases early detection of advanced liver fibrosis and reduce unnecessary referral of patients with mild disease and is cost efficient. Adopting a two-tier approach improves resource utilization.

Women with IBD are not at increased risk of abnormal cervical smears unless they smoke. These data suggest that young women with IBD should be managed as per the background population; attending for regular smear testing, and undergoing vaccination against cervical cancer when available.

We report the successful treatment of a postpartum pyomyoma, a rare but serious complication of uterine leiomyomata in a 28-year-old primigravida. The patient was treated for an Escherichia Coli (E. Coli) urinary tract infection (UTI) at 16 weeks of gestation. She had asymptomatic short cervical length on ultrasound scan at 20 weeks that was managed conservatively due to the presence of further UTI and received antibiotics. She was known to have a left sided intramural leiomyoma. She presented with abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding at 23+1 weeks of gestation and the next day she had spontaneous vaginal delivery and collapsed with E. Coli septic shock, massive postpartum haemorrhage, and disseminated intravascular coagulation and was successfully treated with oxytocic drugs, a Rusch intrauterine balloon, and intravenous antibiotics. Eleven days postnatally she re-presented with systemic sepsis and was treated for retained products of conception. Sepsis persisted and investigations showed a postpartum pyomyoma that was initially managed with intravenous antibiotics to avoid surgery. Ultimately she required laparotomy, drainage of pyomyoma, and myomectomy. Postoperative recovery was good and the patient had a successful pregnancy two years later.

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