IBD

Increases in body mass index during infliximab therapy in patients with Crohn's disease: an open label prospective study Nakahigashi, M. & Yamamoto, T. Cytokine doi:10.1016/j.cyto.2011.07.013

Nakahigashi and Yamamoto investigated the effect of infliximab on nutritional status in 50 patients with Crohn's disease. Infliximab therapy was found to be associated with an improvement in patients' nutritional status (defined as an increase in BMI). Improvements were particularly notable in patients with malnutrition and in those who responded to therapy.

Liver transplantation

Outcome of liver transplantation for recipients with hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus coinfection: analysis of the UNOS data Waki, K. et al. Transplantationdoi:10.1097/TP.0b013e31822d4dc3

Coinfection with HBV and HCV has been reported to increase the risk of graft failure in liver transplant recipients. Waki and colleagues performed a retrospective cohort study that examined data from 48,654 liver transplant recipients. Surprisingly, better graft outcomes were reported for patients with HBV and HCV coinfection compared with those with HCV monoinfection.

Hepatitis

Acute hepatitis E infection accounts for some cases of suspected drug-induced liver injury Daverm, T. J. et al. Gastroenterology doi:10.1053/j.gastro.2011.07.051

Hepatitis A, B and C must be excluded as causes of acute liver injury before a diagnosis of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) can be made. Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection might be another cause of suspected DILI. The researchers in this study therefore assessed the frequency of HEV among 318 patients with suspected DILI. HEV was found to contribute to a small, but important, proportion of cases of liver injury. The researchers conclude that patients with suspected DILI should be tested for HEV infection.

Gastric cancer

Statins are associated with a reduced risk of gastric cancer: a population-based case–control study Chiu, H.-F. et al. Am. J. Gastroenterol. doi:10.1038/ajg.2011.277

Previous studies have demonstrated that statins might have potential protective effects against cancer. Chiu et al. conducted a population-based case–control study to investigate whether there is an association between statin use and gastric cancer risk. Their study included 337 gastric cancer cases and 1,348 controls. The results suggest that the use of statins could reduce the risk of gastric cancer.