Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) with a poor prognosis may be due to persistent colitis. According to the latest guidelines, monitoring has become a part of the treatment process for colitis. Adequate monitoring of the patient's condition is necessary to determine the course of the disease to prevent the worsening of the condition and suppress the subclinical inflammatory process. This analytical study with a cross-sectional design was conducted to evaluate the activity of colitis using the results of C-reactive protein (CRP) and fecal calprotectin (FC) assays. FC levels were analyzed by ELISA, while CRP levels were analyzed using Siemens Flex particle-enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay. In 30 subjects with endoscopy and biopsy of colitis, 16 men and 14 women had a median age of 52.5 (18–70) years. The median FC value increased by 67 (7.3–722 g/g) and was positive (≥50 g/g) in 20 subjects (66.7%), and the mean CRP value was 13.64 mg/L, positive (10–15 mg/L) in 13 subjects (43.33%), and negative (<10 mg/L) in 17 subjects (56.67%). This study demonstrated that FC had a significant relationship with CRP (r=0.57; p<0.001) in patients with colitis. Assessing the levels of FC and CRP among patients with colitis can be useful to assess the worsening of symptoms early and reduce mortality and morbidity.
Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is a condition that is characterized by an increased number of bacteria in the small intestine or an existence of bacteria type that generally should not be in the small intestine. In SIBO, the number of bacteria found in culture was more than 105 CFU (Colony-Forming unit) per ml. The fundamental problem in which SIBO occurred was the disruption in defensive mechanisms to prevent bacteria from overgrowing, including gastric acid juice, intestine motility, competent immune function, and intact anatomy. Disruption of this defensive mechanism will lead to SIBO, which furthermore will result in not only mild complications, such as abdominal complaints, but also severe complications, such as maldigestion/malabsorption, nutrient deficiency, or even systemic infection and acidosis. The manifestations of SIBO were often unclear so that it is hard to distinguish with other diseases, which much lead to misdiagnosis or underdiagnosis. Diagnosis of SIBO should be conducted very meticulously regarding underlying diseases that resulted in gastrointestinal defensive mechanism disturbance and malassimilation syndrome. Additional examinations for SIBO currently were jejunal aspiration and breath test, but both of them had their limitations in sensitivity and specificity. Therapeutical management consisted of treating the underlying diseases, eradicating bacteria with the antibiotic, particularly rifaximin, and improving nutritional deficiency.
Purpose Histopathology method is often used as a gold standard diagnostic for Helicobacter pylori infection in Indonesia. However, it requires an endoscopic procedure which is limited in Indonesia. A non-invasive method, such as 14 C Urea Breath Test (UBT), is more favorable; however, this particular method has not been validated yet. Patients and Methods A total of 55 dyspeptic patients underwent gastroscopy and 14 C-UBT test. We used Heliprobe ® UBT for UBT test. As for the histology, May-Giemsa staining of two gastric biopsies (from the antrum and corpus) were evaluated following the Updated Sydney System. Results The Receiver Operating Characteristics analysis showed that the optimum cut-off value was 57 with excellence Area under Curve = 0.955 (95% CI = 0.861–1.000). By applying the optimum cut-off value, Heliprobe ® UBT showed 92.31% for sensitivity, 97.62% for specificity, 92.31% for positive predictive value, 97.62% for negative predictive value, 38.77 for positive likelihood ratio, 0.0788 for negative likelihood ratio, and 96.36% for the accuracy. Conclusion The 14 C-UBT is an accurate test for H. pylori diagnosis with excellent sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. The different optimum cut-off points suggested that a validation is absolutely necessary for new test prior application to the new population.
Background: Cholangiocarcinoma, a malignancy of the biliary duct system, has been recognized as the second most common cause of biliary tract and primary liver malignancies. The incidence has increased in the last three decades worldwide. Percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD) has been considered a highly important palliative therapy for bile duct obstruction due to its high success rate and low incidence of cholangitis. However, bleeding and catheter dislodgment are still found during the procedure. This case discusses the complications of repeated PTBD stent placement as palliative therapy in a patient with obstructive jaundice due to cholangiocarcinoma. Case Presentation: A 58-year-old female presented with a chief complaint of weakness and pain on the right side of the abdomen, particularly at the site of PTBD stent installation three days before being admitted to Dr. Soetomo General Hospital. In 2017, the patient was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma with obstructive jaundice and had undergone PTBD procedure five times during the period of July 2017 to March 2018 due to biliary leakages. Laboratory investigation indicated elevated bilirubin, decreased potassium, increased random blood sugar, increased blood urea nitrogen, high levels of the 2-hour postprandial blood glucose, and elevated HbA1c, suggesting the conditions of cholangiocarcinoma with obstructive jaundice complicated with hypokalemia, acute kidney injury and type-2 diabetes. The blood smear also indicated normochromic normocytic anisopoikilocytosis anemia and leukocytosis. The patient improved after PTBD replacement, antibiotics treatment, packed red cells transfusion, and rehydration therapy. Conclusion: This case highlights that the complication of PTBD could occur relatively frequently and to prevent the complications in patients with post-PTBD regular medical check-up is therefore recommended. In addition, it is also critical to improve the patient knowledge on how to prevent the bleeding and to avoid the conditions that are potentially increase the chance of catheter dislodgment.
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