This meta-analysis provides some evidence that steroids use, previous surgical history, a preoperative abscess, and low albumin levels may be associated with higher rates of IASCs in CD. Knowledge about those risk factors may influence treatment and procedure-related decisions, and possibly reduce the ss rate.

The eradication rate of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) has been decreasing every year, mainly due to the increase in antibiotic resistance. In fact, many other factors may affect H. pylori eradication. To analyze the clinical factors affecting the initial eradication therapy in Chinese patients with H. pylori infection. We conducted a retrospective study on 264 outpatients who were diagnosed with H. pylori-associated chronic gastritis and peptic ulcer disease between January and December 2015 at a large tertiary hospital in China. The patients were divided into three groups: ECA, RCA, and RCM (R: 20 mg rabeprazole, E: 40 mg esomeprazole, C: 0.5 g clarithromycin, A: 1.0 g amoxicillin and M: 0.4 g metronidazole). The patients were treated for 14 days and followed up for 1 year. The 14C-urea breath test (14C-UBT) was performed 4 weeks after the completion of the eradication therapy. The eradication rate was higher in ≥ 40-year-old patients than in < 40-year-old-patients (85.7% vs. 54.7%, p = 0.002). Multivariate analyses revealed only age ≥ 40 years to be significantly associated with a high H. pylori eradication rate [odds ratio (OR) 4.58, p = 0.003]. The H. pylori eradication rate in patients with duodenal ulcers was significantly higher than that in patients with gastric ulcers (79% vs. 60%, p = 0.012). Age could be a predictor of successful H. pylori eradication. Patients with duodenal ulcers had a higher H. pylori eradication rate than those with other lesions.

The immune checkpoint blockade is an effective strategy to enhance the anti-tumor T cell effector activity, thus becoming one of the most promising immunotherapeutic strategies in the history of cancer treatment. Several immune checkpoint inhibitor have been approved by the FDA, such as anti-CTLA-4, anti-PD-1, anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibodies. Most tumor patients benefitted from these antibodies, but some of the patients did not respond to them. To increase the effectiveness of immunotherapy, including immune checkpoint blockade therapies, miniaturization of antibodies has been introduced. A single-domain antibody, also known as nanobody, is an attractive reagent for immunotherapy and immunoimaging thanks to its unique structural characteristic consisting of a variable region of a single heavy chain antibody. This structure confers to the nanobody a light molecular weight, making it smaller than conventional antibodies, although remaining able to bind to a specific antigen. Therefore, this review summarizes the production of nanobodies targeting immune checkpoint molecules and the application of nanobodies targeting immune checkpoint molecules in immunotherapy and immunoimaging.