Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Bile pigments, including bilirubin and biliverdin, contribute importantly to the defense against oxidative stress. Moreover, recent clinical studies suggest that mildly elevated serum bilirubin levels might protect from certain forms of cancer. Artificial bezoar (powdered bovine gallstones, also known as Niu Huang, or Calculus bovis) is used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries for its antipyretic and anti-inflammatory properties. In the present experimental study, we investigated the effect of artificial bezoar on proliferation of human pancreatic cancer.

Chronic pancreatitis could be well diagnosed by histopathology, but for clinical purposes, differential diagnostics and patient follow-up we use mainly imaging procedures and non-invasive pancreatic function tests, if available. In this study we report the 4 years experiences with noninvasive test of exocrine pancreatic function - breath test with 13C-mixed triglycerides (MTG-BT). libators, the mean difference was 4.9% (Pearson

In this study we compared different algorithms using four serology markers of CD in a group of 1451 patients. The correlation of two ELISA methods (Genesis, DPC Millenia) of atTG IgA class was high (r = 0.930), correlations of at TG (DPC) and antigliadin (AG) antibodies were significantly higher in the IgA class than IgG class, Spearman’s coeff. were 0.607 and 0.423 respectively. The clinical benefit of IgG atTG antibodies determination could be exhibited by 7 cases highly positive in IgG class but negative in IgA class of atTG, or by 5 cases in the screening strategy positive with IgG atTG from 78 cases negative in all IgA class antibodies (AGA, EmA, atTG). 

This study summarizes pre-and post-analytical aspects of the 13C-breath-test(BT) evaluated by means of isotope selective nondispersive infrared spectrometry(NDIRS) -Isomax 4000 (Isodiagnostika). Moreover, the sources of inaccuracy in test results are identified: (a) uncertain baseline 13C abundance, (b) inaccuracy of the spectrometer, and (c) uncertainty in CO2production, which also burden cummulative BT where IR/IRMS measuring instruments are used. 

Textbooks, lectures and other educational textsprepared in last years are on-line (mostly in Czech language) available on WWW server of 1st Faculty of Medicine of the Charles University in Prague on URL: http://www.lf1.cuni.cz/ukb/.This presentaion is concerned to our last project of hypertext, multimedia encyclopedia of laboratory methods -GastroLab(URL: http://gelab.zde.cz).This pilot chapter is focused to gastroenterology. There are 47 laboratory methods, described in concise text, supplemented with 38 PowerPoint images, 237 on-line linksto last scientific papers (MEDLINE database) and direct links into National Registry of Laboratory Methods (NCLP = National Reference Table of Laboratory Items) on the server of Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic -URL: http://www.mzcr.cz.The GastroLab is now included into another hypertext project -Encyclopedia of Laboratory Medicine. This CD-ROM publication was issued in December 2002, 2nd updated edition will be ready in June 2003, edited by prof. A. Jabor at co-workers (Institute of Postgraduate Education).

Účel studie: V patogenezi alkoholické jaterní cirhózy (ALC) hrají významnou úlohu zánětlivé cytokiny tumor necrosis factor alfa (TNF-?) a interleukin 1-beta (IL-1?). Haplotyp [-511C; -31T] promotoru genu IL-1B a variabilní počet tandemových repetic délky 86-bp ve 2. intronu genu pro receptorového antagonistu IL-1 (IL-1RN) zvyšují transkripci genu pro IL-1B. Cílem studie bylo ověřit, zda tyto polymorfismy v genovém clusteru IL-1 ovlivní riziko ALC.

Bilirubin, the principle bile pigment, is the end product of heme catabolism. For many years, bilirubin was thought to have no physiological function other than that of a waste product of heme catabolism – useless at best and toxic at worst. Although hyperbilirubinemia in neonates has been shown to be neurotoxic, studies performed during the past decade have found that bilirubin has a number of new and interesting biochemical and biological properties. In addition, there is now a strong body of evidence suggesting that bilirubin may have a beneficial role in preventing oxidative changes in a number of diseases including atherosclerosis and cancer, as well as a number of inflammatory, autoimmune and degenerative diseases.