Even though nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is the most common form of chronic liver disease in the United States, there are unfortunately no FDA-approved medications for this condition. That’s why Dr. Peter Buch speaks with Dr. Sidney Barritt about even more treatment strategies for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in the second and final part of this two-episode series. Dr. Barritt is an Associate Professor of Medicine and the Director of Hepatology at the UNC Liver Center at the University of North Carolina.
Author: Abhay Panchal
Exact Sciences plans to seek approval soon of an updated Cologuard stool-based colon cancer screening test and launch a blood test to detect cancer that can linger after surgery. The Madison-based company is also developing blood tests to screen for colon cancer and for many types of cancer at once. But whether it starts a large, expensive study of its multi-cancer screening test next year could depend on whether Congress tells Medicare to pay for it.
Key takeaways: A familial risk score comprised of age, obesity, type 2 diabetes and family history of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease accurately identified advanced fibrosis among first-degree relatives, according to researchers.
Less than 1 month since launch, Threads is the new darling of social media platforms. And, you may be unsure if you should be spending your valuable time on the platform to learn, educate or both. Join Healio and our star-packed panel for a free webinar discussing physicians and other health care providers’ use of the new social media platform, Threads. The renowned group of social media experts will answer questions about the platform’s utility, its pros and cons, and how health care providers should, or shouldn’t, be using it.
Crohn’s Disease, an inflammatory bowel disease, can lead to serious symptoms if not properly managed. There is a clear need for reliable predictors of disease prognosis and response to treatment. Capsule endoscopy, which uses a tiny device fitted with a camera and transmitter to analyze the entire digestive system, offers a potential solution. However, each endoscopy capsule film yields about 10 – 12 thousand images, making it challenging for doctors to identify all crucial details due to the high volume of visual data. Now, a newly developed artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm can rapidly scan and thoroughly analyze all the images…
Don’t let your endoscope drip-dry, and please, remember to wash your hands. The World Gastroenterology Organisation’s updated endoscope reprocessing guidelines are full of practical strategies and advice for reducing infection risk. The update reiterates the importance of fighting biofilm and puts a spotlight on endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography as the procedure most commonly linked to bacterial outbreaks. “Biofilm, or buildup of accumulated biofilm, does occur in flexible endoscopes. The prior expectation was that this would not happen because the endoscopes are supposed to be fully processed, disinfected and stored dry,” said guideline author Michelle Alfa, MSc, PhD, FCCM, a professor at…
Becker’s recently connected with Andrew Boxer, MD, a physician with Woodland Park-based Gastroenterology Associates of New Jersey, to hear his predictions on changes and trends in gastroenterology. Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity. Question: What are some trends and challenges you’ve seen or predict in gastroenterology?Dr. Andrew Boxer: I’ve been doing this for about 15 years and there are two major changes. One is technology, which has impacted the field tremendously over the last few years. Things like AI technology like the Medtronic GI Genius, our devices we are using now are different. We have…
An amino-acid based diet may help provide relief for patients with eosinophilic gastritis or gastroenteritis (EoG/EoGE), a small prospective study found. All 15 participants experienced a complete histologic remission in both the stomach (from 50 to 11 eosinophils per high-power microscopic field of gastric or duodenal biopsy sample [eos/hpf], P<0.001) and in the duodenum (from 49 to 16 eos/hpf, P=0.001) following 6 weeks of the amino acid-based, nutritionally complete elemental formula (ELE) diet, reported researchers led by Nirmala Gonsalves, MD, of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
Eligible patients may increasingly prefer an annual fecal immunochemical test (FIT) or fecal occult blood test (FOBT) over a colonoscopy, according to new data.1 In findings from the colorectal cancer screening CONFIRM trial, investigators reported that preference for lesser invasive screening methods has been popularizing among a population of US veterans recruited into the US-based assessment—and that FIT or FOBT have already surpassed colonoscopies as the most popular method of colorectal cancer screening in some regions.
Even though nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is the most common form of chronic liver disease in the United States, there are unfortunately no FDA-approved medications for this condition. That’s why Dr. Peter Buch speaks with Dr. Sidney Barritt about top treatment strategies for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in part one of this two-episode series. Dr. Barritt is an Associate Professor of Medicine and the Director of Hepatology at the UNC Liver Center at the University of North Carolina.