Gastroenterology Commons^™

Recommendations For The Development Of New Hospital Guidelines Due To The Effects Of Antibiotics On Clostridium Difficile Colitis, Megan Kohsel

Honors Theses

Clostridium difficile colitis is an infection that causes inflammation of the colon and diarrhea. This can even lead to death in some cases. The incidence of this infection and its overall effects have been on the rise throughout the last twenty years as antibiotics have been prescribed more frequently. Therefore, it is necessary that the rate of C. difficile infection is lowered by improved guidelines for hospitals, so that fewer people are infected and also that fewer antibiotics are prescribed to avoid the infection with C. difficle.

Increased Number Of Circulating Exosomes And Their Microrna Cargos Are Potential Novel Biomarkers In Alcoholic Hepatitis, Fatemeh Momen-Heravi, Banishree Saha, Karen Kodys, Donna Catalano, Abhishek Satishchandran, Gyongyi Szabo

Gyongyi Szabo

BACKGROUND: It has been well documented that alcohol and its metabolites induce injury and inflammation in the liver. However, there is no potential biomarker to monitor the extent of liver injury in alcoholic hepatitis patients. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs that are involved in various physiologic and pathologic processes. In the circulation, a great proportion of miRNAs is associated with extracellular vesicles (EVs)/exosomes. Here, we hypothesized that the exosome-associated miRNAs can be used as potential biomarkers in alcoholic hepatitis (AH).

METHODS: Exosomes were isolated from sera of alcohol-fed mice or pair-fed mice, and plasma of alcoholic hepatitis …

Pathogen-Specific Burdens Of Community Diarrhoea In Developing Countries: A Multisite Birth Cohort Study (Mal-Ed), Sadia Shakoor, Shahida Qureshi, Furqan Kabir, Anita K. M. Zaidi, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta, Imran Ahmed, Didar Alam, Syed Asad Ali, Muneera Rasheed, Sajid Bashir Soofi, Ali Turab, Aisha Khizar Yousafzai

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Background: Most studies of the causes of diarrhoea in low-income and middle-income countries have looked at severe disease in people presenting for care, and there are few estimates of pathogen-specific diarrhoea burdens in the community.
Methods: We undertook a birth cohort study with not only intensive community surveillance for diarrhoea but also routine collection of non-diarrhoeal stools from eight sites in South America, Africa, and Asia. We enrolled children within 17 days of birth, and diarrhoeal episodes (defined as maternal report of three or more loose stools in 24 h, or one loose stool with visible blood) were identified through …

Site-Specific Immunomodulator: A Novel Treatment For Crohn's Disease, Brian Bressler, Kevin P. Bethel, Ralf Kleef, Sophie L. Reynolds, Simon Sutcliffe, David W. Mullins, Hal Gunn

Dartmouth Scholarship

We investigated the mechanism of action, safety, and efficacy of the Site-Specific Immunomodulator (SSI) QBECO, a novel immunotherapy for Crohn’s disease (CD). Using human monocytic THP-1 cells, we demonstrate that SSI QBECO (derived from the common colon bacteria E. coli) activates macrophages to an M1 phenotype (associated with enhanced capacity to eliminate bacteria and activate innate immune responses). We assessed SSI QBECO in a compassionate use protocol of ten adult patients with active CD. Patients with moderate to severe clinical symptoms receiving conventional CD treatments and/or complementary therapies were included, except patients receiving anti-TNF medications. SSI QBECO was self-administered subcutaneously …

Interferon Lambda-3 Polymorphism And Response To Pegylated Interferon In Patients With Hepatitis D, Zaigham Abbas, Javed Yakoob, Muhammad A. Umer,, Minaam Abbas, Saeed Hamid

Section of Gastroenterology

Background: Specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) near the interferon lambda-3 (IFNλ3) gene (formerly interleukin 28B) influence the response to treatment with interferon in hepatitis C patients. We aimed to investigate such an influence in hepatitis D patients.
Methods: The study population consisted of hepatitis D patients who were previously treated with pegylated interferon for one year and who were spontaneous clearers of the virus post recent superinfection. The SNP of IFNλ3, rs12979860, was determined by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism protocol.
Results: The total number of patients was 64; median age was 30.5 years and 53 were male. The …

Obesity And Metabolic Phenotypes (Metabolically Healthy And Unhealthy Variants) Are Significantly Associated With Prevalence Of Elevated C-Reactive Protein And Hepatic Steatosis In A Large Healthy Brazilian Population, Sameer Shaharyar, Lara Roberson, Omar Jamal, Adnan Younus, Shozab Ali, Arthur Agatston, Khurram Nasir Baptist Health Medical Group

All Publications

BACKGROUND:Among the obese, the so-called metabolically healthy obese (MHO) phenotype is thought to confer a lower CVD risk as compared to obesity with typical associated metabolic changes. The present study aims to determine the relationship of different subtypes of obesity with inflammatory-cardiometabolic abnormalities.METHODS:We evaluated 5,519 healthy, Brazilian subjects (43 ± 10 years, 78% males), free of known cardiovascular disease. Those with (MRF) were considered metabolically healthy, and those with BMI ≥ 25 kg/m(2) and/or waist circumference meeting NCEP criteria for metabolic syndrome as overweight/obese (OW). High sensitivity C reactive protein (hsCRP) was measured to assess underlying inflammation and hepatic steatosis …

Total Pancreatectomy With Islet Autologous Transplantation: The Cure For Chronic Pancreatitis?, Samuel J. Kesseli, Kerrington A. Smith, Timothy B. Gardner

Dartmouth Scholarship

Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a debilitating disease that leads to varying degrees of pancreatic endocrine and exocrine dysfunction. One of the most difficult symptoms of CP is severe abdominal pain, which is often challenging to control with available analgesics and therapies. In the last decade, total pancreatectomy with autologous islet cell transplantation has emerged as a promising treatment for the refractory pain of CP and is currently performed at approximately a dozen centers in the United States. While total pancreatectomy is not a new procedure, the endocrine function-preserving autologous islet cell isolation and re-implantation have made the prospect of total …