Choledocholithiasis during Pregnancy: Multimodal Approach Treatment

Pregnancy is an important risk factor for growth of choledochal stones. Since choledocholithiasis encountered during pregnancy, which is also a possible cause of pancreatitis and cholangitis, may be the reason for serious morbidity and mortality both for the mother and the fetus, it should be treated. In this article, the results and reliability of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) application on a pregnant woman accompanied with percutaneous biliary procedures are presented.            We report a case of 33-year-old woman at 19th week of gestation with cholestatic jaundice due to a common bile duct (CBD) stone managed by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). The patient had post ERCP pancreatitis which resolved with medical management. Percutaneous cholecystostomy was also performed to control source of infection in the gallbladder.            ERCP is the first procedure that will be preferred in the treatment of choledocholithiasis in pregnancy with the right indications provided that proper precautions have been taken. Possible harmful effects of ionized radiation on fetus during fluoroscopy should be minimalized by giving in short periods and low doses.Keywords:

The New Era of Immunotherapy in Bile Duct Cancer Management

Bile duct carcinoma or well known as cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is the second most common of primary liver malignancy after hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Although cholangiocarcinoma is a rare cancer, it has an aggressive feature with very poor prognosis. The epidemiological profile of cholangiocarcinoma varies widely across the world, which is reflecting the exposure of different risk factors, such as chronic inflammatory disease of the biliary tract, specific infectious disease, and congenital malformation. Diagnosis of CCA is quite challenging. CCA is generally asymptomatic in the early stages. Therefore, the management of this malignancy is often delayed due to late diagnosed, where the metastasis has already present or even when it is causing bile duct obstruction. Treatment for CCA is often difficult and should be managed in the tertiary referral hospital with a multidisciplinary team approach. Surgical treatment with complete resection could be benefit only for patient with early stage of the disease. Other treatment modalities as adjuvant therapy are also have been developed to improve survival of the patient, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, molecular targeted therapy, targeting angiogenesis and EGFR, and immunotherapy. Recently, immunotherapy has also been developed as a new cancer treatment option and showed a promising result. Whether immunotherapy can be useful for treatment biliary malignancy is still controversial. Hence, a lot of studies is still required to confirm the preliminary findings

The Prevalence of Reflux Esophagitis in the Elderly and Its Associated Risk Factors

Background: Reflux esophagitis is a common problem in the elderly. Compare to the Western Countries, esophageal cancer where reflux esophagitis is the most predominant risk factor is considered rare in Asia. Many other risk factors have not been well studied especially in most Asian countries. The objective of this study is to evaluate the presence of reflux esophagitis in elderly patients and its associated risk factors.Method: This was a cross-sectional study in elderly patients who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Patients who received long-term proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy, suffered from gastrointestinal Malignancies, recently receiving chemotherapy agents, diagnosed with cerebrovascular disease or Helicobacter pylori infection were excluded. Statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS software version 17.00 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA).Results: A total of 238 elderly patients were enrolled. Patients\u27 mean age was 69.8 ± 6.8 years old. Reflux esophagitis was found in 22 (9.2%) patients. Several comorbidities were found in these patients, such as diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, chronic kidney disease, and liver cirrhosis. The only factor that associated with reflux esophagitis was the presence of hiatus hernia esophagus (p = 0.038). However, reflux esophagitis seemed to be more found in the elderly patients who have history of reflux inducing drugs consumption without any proton pump inhibitor (PPI) protection.Conclusion: Reflux esophagitis is still a major problem in the elderly. The presence of hiatus hernia might give an important consideration of upper gastrointestinal endoscopy screening. However, it would be a debate matter with regards to the cost burden and the low risk of esophageal cancer in Asian countries

Evaluation of Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) for Fibrosis Staging in Chronic Liver Diseases

Background: acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) is a new proposed noninvasive method for liver fibrosis staging. Integrated with B-mode ultrasonography, ARFI can be used to assess liver tissue condition. However its diagnostic accuracy is still being continuously evaluated. Also, there is lack of data regarding the utilization of ARFI in our population. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of ARFI as an alternative noninvasive modality for fibrosis staging in chronic hepatitis B and hepatitis C patients in our population. Methods: we conducted cross-sectional comparison of ARFI imaging and transient elastography on patients who underwent liver biopsy at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital. Fibrosis staging using METAVIR scoring system presented as standard reference. A total of 43 patients underwent liver biopsy was evaluated by ARFI imaging and transient elastography. Cut-off values were determined using receiver-operating characteristic (ROC). Results: both liver stiffness determined by ARFI and transient elastography (TE) were moderately correlated with METAVIR score with value of 0.581 and 0.613, respectively (both P<0.01). Diagnostic accuracy of ARFI predicted significant fibrosis (F≥2) with area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.773 (95% CI 0.616-0.930) and even better for cirrhosis (F4 fibrosis), expressed as AUROC of 0.856 (95% CI 0.736–0.975). Transient elastography was better for significant fibrosis with AUROC of 0.761 (95% CI 0.601–0.920) and was best for prediction of cirrhosis, expressed as AUROC of 0.845 (95% CI 0.722–0.968). Conclusion: ARFI is provided with more convenient evaluation of liver tissue condition, and its diagnostic accuracy is not significantly different from TE for staging liver fibrosis

Efficacy of Combination Sofosbuvir, Pegylated-Interferon, and Ribavirin for Treatment of Hepatitis C Virus Genotype 1 Infection in Indonesia

Background: The presence of direct-acting antiviral (DAA) has improved the treatment of HCV infection and making it more preferable than Pegylated-interferon (PegIFN) and Ribavirin (RBV) based treatment. However, treatment with all DAA combination regimen is limited and expensive in low health care affordability country including Indonesia. The appearance of generic sofosbuvir (SOF) facilitate the utilization of SOF plus PegINF with or withour RBV combination. Therefore, in this study we assessed the efficacy of SOF+RBV and SOF+RBV+PegINF combination for treatment of chronic hepatitis C infections patient with genotype 1 in IndonesiaMethod: We performed retrospective study comprising 128 patients in Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital with chronic hepatitis C, genotype 1, infection. 36 patients was treated with PegINF+SOF+RBV and 92 patients was treated with SOF+RBV with the duration of therapy was 12 and 24 weeks in both arms. The primary endpoint was sustained virologic response after treatment completion (SVR12)Results: In the end of treatment, 99.2% patients achieved undetected HCV RNA in 12 weeks and 24 weeks duration of therapy (100% in PegINF+SOF+RBV group and 98.9% in SOF+RBV group). The SVR12 of PegINF+SOF+RBV reach 100% meanwhile The SVR12 of SOF+RBV reach 88%.  No different in SVR12 between cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic patient in PegINF+SOF+RBV group while in SOF+RBV group, the SVR12 was lower in cirrhotic patients (82.9%) compared to non-cirrhotic patients (92.2%). In multivariate analysis, HIV co-infection is associated with lower SVR12 in SOF+RBV group.Conclusion: 12 weeks and 24 weeks of PegINF+SOF+RBV and SOF+RBV is effective in the treatment of genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C infectio

Technique innovation of endoscopic ultrasound portal pressure gradient measurement using standard manometer set for portal hypertension assessment

Abstract Portal hypertension (PH) is still a major challenge to be managed in clinical practice. However, hepatic vein pressure gradient (HVPG) measurement is not always reliable for portal hypertension (PH) diagnosis. This study showed the impact of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) as a promising tool for diagnosis and management PH condition

Choledocholithiasis during Pregnancy: Multimodal Approach Treatment

Pregnancy is an important risk factor for growth of choledochal stones. Since choledocholithiasis encountered during pregnancy, which is also a possible cause of pancreatitis and cholangitis, may be the reason for serious morbidity and mortality both for the mother and the fetus, it should be treated. In this article, the results and reliability of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) application on a pregnant woman accompanied with percutaneous biliary procedures are presented. We report a case of 33-year-old woman at 19th week of gestation with cholestatic jaundice due to a common bile duct (CBD) stone managed by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). The patient had post ERCP pancreatitis which resolved with medical management. Percutaneous cholecystostomy was also performed to control source of infection in the gallbladder. ERCP is the first procedure that will be preferred in the treatment of choledocholithiasis in pregnancy with the right indications provided that proper precautions have been taken. Possible harmful effects of ionized radiation on fetus during fluoroscopy should be minimalized by giving in short periods and low doses