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For colorectal cancer screening, the issue is no longer whether the fecal immunochemical test (FIT) is preferable to the guaiac fecal occult blood test, but how best to use the FIT. Using the OC-Sensor™ FIT with a hemoglobin cut-off level of 50 ng/ml could offer the best cost-effectiveness ratio compared with nonscreening settings.
Crohn's disease is a life-long illness, with patients increasingly being exposed to diagnostic medical radiation. Diagnostic strategies are being re-evaluated after concerns were raised over the long-term effects of medical radiation. A recent study explored the cost-effectiveness of a magnetic resonance enterography program in patients with Crohn's disease, which could reduce the risk of radiation-induced neoplasia.
An ideal diagnostic test should be quick, reliable and noninvasive. Fecal calprotectin is considered a marker of intestinal inflammation and has proven to be an effective test for IBD, but is fecal calprotectin a useful diagnostic tool when assessing patients with cirrhosis?
Accurate estimation of standard liver volume (SLV) is one of the key factors for successful liver transplantation. Contrary to some misconceptions, SLV was developed for the sake of the recipient and not for the donor in living donor liver transplantation. A recent study evaluated the accuracy of five formulas for estimation of SLV, and investigated the effect of liver steatosis on errors in estimation.
Campylobacter jejuniandC. coli are well-established human gastrointestinal pathogens, but other Campylobacterspecies (so-called emerging species) have also been shown to infect both humans and animals. In this Review, Man highlights the clinical importance of these emerging bacteria in both gastrointestinal and extragastrointestinal disease and describes the epidemiology, pathogenesis and transmission of these organisms.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) results from an accumulation of genetic and epigenetic changes in colon epithelial cells, which transforms them into adenocarcinomas. Over the past decade, major advances have been made in understanding cancer epigenetics, particularly regarding aberrant DNA methylation. Lao and Grady provide an overview of the role of epigenetics in CRC and discuss the clinical applications of these epigenetic alterations as biomarkers for early detection, diagnosis, prognostication and management of patients with CRC.
Currently, vaccines are not widely used in the control of cholera, but new-generation orally administered vaccines may well become important tools in the public health armamentarium against this disease. This Review focuses on selected aspects of the disease, its pathogenesis and immunology, clinical features, epidemiology and treatment, and summarizes the status of new-generation cholera vaccines.
Over the past 10 years, most developed nation states have implemented mass population screening programs for colorectal cancer. Advances in the development of diagnostic molecular markers for colorectal cancer have yielded an expanding list of potential new screening modalities. The purpose of this Review is to summarize the different screening strategies that have been or are being investigated and to provide a critical evaluation of the performance data and relative merits of the potential new methods.
