Cardiac Arrest and Gastrointestinal Bleeding: A Case of Medical Heuristics

Insufficient clinical data from patients is a major cause of errors in medical diagnostics. In an attempt to make a diagnosis, initial clinical information provided to the physician may be overly relied on as the only information required in making diagnosis leading to anchoring. Failure to rely on differential diagnoses in spite of new signs and symptoms or rethinking of initial hypothesis may lead to fixation on a certain diagnosis, which may lead to significant morbidity and mortality. In the event that there is an anchoring heuristic, like in our patient, it is important to consider differential diagnoses; however, it is not wrong to rely on some form of anchor. We report a case of a 62-year-old male with a history of multiple medical conditions and a history of acetaminophen overdose who presented to the hospital with large amounts of coffee ground emesis. He was subsequently transferred to the liver transplant center on discovery that he was in fulminant hepatic failure and died two days later in spite of aggressive medical treatment

Sero-prevalence and associated risk factors of Hepatitis B among adults attending selected government hospitals in Nigeria

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is one of the major public health problems globally. This study aims to determine the frequency of occurrence of HBV infection and associated risk factors for acquisition of the disease in clinically-ill adult patients attending selected government hospitals in Ondo State, Nigeria. Seven hundred and sixty-seven (767) ill adult individuals attending five medical out-patient Departments of the hospitals who consented to the study were recruited for the investigation. A structured questionnaire which covered sociodemographic characteristics and risk factors were used for primary information. Positivity for HBV was determined using a quality assured commercial enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit for the detection of Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). Of the 767 patients, 11.0% were positive for HBsAg. The prevalence rate for HBsAg positivity was higher in the males (13.5%) than the females (9.3%) (pv = 0.043). The study also revealed the highest prevalence rate of HBsAg infection among the age group 19 – 39 years with mean percentage of 17.5%. Alcohol consumption, history of HBV in the family, multiple sex partners, history of injections in road side chemist shops, and intake of traditional herbs showed significant association respectively (p < 0.05), however no significant association among individuals with history of HBV vaccination, blood transfusion and tattoo/tribal mark (p > 0.05). Conclusively, this study gives information on the prevalence rate of HBV in the community sampled to be 11.0%. This shows that HBV is endemic in Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria

Host Genetics Predict Clinical Deterioration in HCV-Related Cirrhosis

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the epidermal growth factor (EGF, rs4444903), patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing protein 3 (PNPLA3, rs738409) genes, and near the interleukin-28B (IL28B, rs12979860) gene are linked to treatment response, fibrosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in chronic hepatitis C. Whether these SNPs independently or in combination predict clinical deterioration in hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related cirrhosis is unknown. We genotyped SNPs in EGF, PNPLA3, and IL28B from liver tissue from 169 patients with biopsy-proven HCV cirrhosis. We estimated risk of clinical deterioration, defined as development of ascites, encephalopathy, variceal hemorrhage, HCC, or liver-related death using Cox proportional hazards modeling. During a median follow-up of 6.6 years, 66 of 169 patients experienced clinical deterioration. EGF non-AA, PNPLA3 non-CC, and IL28B non-CC genotypes were each associated with increased risk of clinical deterioration in age, sex, and race-adjusted analysis. Only EGF non-AA genotype was independently associated with increased risk of clinical deterioration (hazard ratio [HR] 2.87; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.31–6.25) after additionally adjusting for bilirubin, albumin, and platelets. Compared to subjects who had 0–1 unfavorable genotypes, the HR for clinical deterioration was 1.79 (95%CI 0.96–3.35) for 2 unfavorable genotypes and 4.03 (95%CI 2.13–7.62) for unfavorable genotypes for all three loci (Ptrend<0.0001). In conclusion, among HCV cirrhotics, EGF non-AA genotype is independently associated with increased risk for clinical deterioration. Specific PNPLA3 and IL28B genotypes also appear to be associated with clinical deterioration. These SNPs have potential to identify patients with HCV-related cirrhosis who require more intensive monitoring for decompensation or future therapies preventing disease progression

Higher odds of irritable bowel syndrome among hospitalized patients using cannabis

International audienceBACKGROUND: The endogenous cannabinoid system modulates many brain-gut and gut-brain physiologic pathways, which are postulated to be dysfunctional in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Herein, we examine the relationship between cannabis use disorder (CUD) and having IBS.PATIENTS AND METHODS: After selecting patients aged 18 years and above from the 2014 Nationwide Inpatient Survey, we used the International Classification of Diseases, 9th ed. codes to identify individuals with CUD, IBS, and the established risk factors for IBS. We then estimated the crude and adjusted odds ratios of having a diagnosis of IBS with CUD and assessed for the interactions of CUD with other risk factors (SAS 9.4). We confirmed our findings in two ways: conducting a similar analysis on a previous Nationwide Inpatient Survey data (2012); and using a greedy algorithm to design a propensity-scored case-control (1 : 10) study, approximating a pseudorandomized clinical trial.RESULTS: Out of 4 709 043 patients evaluated, 0.03% had a primary admission for IBS and 1.32% had CUD. CUD was associated with increased odds of IBS [adjusted odds ratio: 2.03; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.53-2.71]. CUD was related to higher odds for IBS among males compared with females (3.48; 1.98-6.12 vs. 1.48; 0.88-2.50), and Hispanics and Caucasians compared with Blacks (5.28; 1.77-15.76, 1.80; 1.02-3.18 vs. 1.80; 0.65-5.03). On propensity-matching, CUD was associated with 80% increased odds for IBS (1.82; 1.27-2.60).CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that CUD is significantly associated with IBS among the general population. Males, Caucasians, and Hispanics might be more impacted by CUD associated IBS. Additional biomedical studies are required to elucidate this relationship

Cannabis use is associated with reduced prevalence of progressive stages of alcoholic liver disease

International audienceBACKGROUND:Abusive alcohol use has well-established health risks including causing liver disease (ALD) characterized by alcoholic steatosis (AS), steatohepatitis (AH), fibrosis, cirrhosis (AC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Strikingly, a significant number of individuals who abuse alcohol also use Cannabis, which has seen increased legalization globally. While cannabis has demonstrated anti-inflammatory properties, its combined use with alcohol and the development of liver disease remain unclear.AIM:The aim of this study was to determine the effects of cannabis use on the incidence of liver disease in individuals who abuse alcohol.METHODS:We analysed the 2014 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project-Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) discharge records of patients 18 years and older, who had a past or current history of abusive alcohol use (n = 319 514). Using the International Classification of Disease, Ninth Edition codes, we studied the four distinct phases of progressive ALD with respect to three cannabis exposure groups: non-cannabis users (90.39%), non-dependent cannabis users (8.26%) and dependent cannabis users (1.36%). We accounted for the complex survey sampling methodology and estimated the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for developing AS, AH, AC and HCC with respect to cannabis use (SAS 9.4).RESULTS:Our study revealed that among alcohol users, individuals who additionally use cannabis (dependent and non-dependent cannabis use) showed significantly lower odds of developing AS, AH, AC and HCC (AOR: 0.55 [0.48-0.64], 0.57 [0.53-0.61], 0.45 [0.43-0.48] and 0.62 [0.51-0.76]). Furthermore, dependent users had significantly lower odds than non-dependent users for developing liver disease.CONCLUSIONS:Our findings suggest that cannabis use is associated with a reduced incidence of liver disease in alcoholics

Cannabis use is associated with reduced prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: A cross-sectional study.

Cannabis use is associated with reduced prevalence of obesity and diabetes mellitus (DM) in humans and mouse disease models. Obesity and DM are a well-established independent risk factor for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the most prevalent liver disease globally. The effects of cannabis use on NAFLD prevalence in humans remains ill-defined. Our objective is to determine the relationship between cannabis use and the prevalence of NAFLD in humans. We conducted a population-based case-control study of 5,950,391 patients using the 2014 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), Nationwide Inpatient Survey (NIS) discharge records of patients 18 years and older. After identifying patients with NAFLD (1% of all patients), we next identified three exposure groups: non-cannabis users (98.04%), non-dependent cannabis users (1.74%), and dependent cannabis users (0.22%). We adjusted for potential demographics and patient related confounders and used multivariate logistic regression (SAS 9.4) to determine the odds of developing NAFLD with respects to cannabis use. Our findings revealed that cannabis users (dependent and non-dependent) showed significantly lower NAFLD prevalence compared to non-users (AOR: 0.82[0.76-0.88]; p<0.0001). The prevalence of NAFLD was 15% lower in non-dependent users (AOR: 0.85[0.79-0.92]; p<0.0001) and 52% lower in dependent users (AOR: 0.49[0.36-0.65]; p<0.0001). Among cannabis users, dependent patients had 43% significantly lower prevalence of NAFLD compared to non-dependent patients (AOR: 0.57[0.42-0.77]; p<0.0001). Our observations suggest that cannabis use is associated with lower prevalence of NAFLD in patients. These novel findings suggest additional molecular mechanistic studies to explore the potential role of cannabis use in NAFLD development

Dependent alcohol use abolishes reduced NAFLD prevalence observed in non-dependent cannabis users.

<p>Bar graph described from the leftmost to the rightmost: Taking non-cannabis users/non-alcohol users (NCU+NAU) as the reference group, non-dependent (moderate) cannabis use/non-alcohol use (NDCU+NAU) caused a slight reduction in NAFLD prevalence, though not statistically significant. Non-dependent (moderate) alcohol use among NDCU (NDCU+NDA) resulted in a reduced NAFLD prevalence, though this protection was lost with dependent (abusive) alcohol use (NDCU+DA). However dependent (high volume) cannabis use (DCU) was always associated with a reduction in NAFLD prevalence among all categories of alcohol users: non-alcohol (DCU+NAU), moderate/non-dependent alcohol users (DCU+NDA) and copious/dependent alcohol users (DCU+DA). Illustrated schematics made use of some motifolio templates (<a href="http://www.motifolio.com" target="_blank">www.motifolio.com</a>).</p