ALLMedicine™ Cholangitis Center - News

Jun 30th, 2017 - Clinicians are required to assess abnormal liver chemistries on a daily basis. The most common liver chemistries ordered are serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase and bilirubin. These tests should be termed liver chemistries or liver tests. Hepatocellular injury is defined as disproportionate elevation of AST and ALT levels compared with al...

Aug 3rd, 2014 - Gallstones develop insidiously, and patients may remain asymptomatic for decades. Among symptomatic patients, gallstones can be challenging to diagnose and may be mistaken for irritable bowel disease, gastric reflux, or other diseases. If gallstones migrate into the bile ducts, they may cause life-threatening conditions, including cholangitis and pancreatitis. Do you know what to look for on im...

Aug 17th, 2016 - Action Points Obeticholic acid (Ocaliva) administered for 1 year to patients with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) performed better than placebo, in a phase III clinical trial. Note that an improvement in survival, progression to cirrhosis, or other disease-related symptoms in patients being treated with obeticholic acid has not yet been established according to the FDA. Obeticholic acid (Ocal...

Apr 12th, 2018 - Action Points Note that this retrospective analysis of patients with primary biliary cirrhosis found that mirtazapine use was associated with significantly improved outcomes. Be aware that mirtazapine use overall was relatively uncommon in this cohort. Use of the antidepressant mirtazapine (Remeron) was associated with reduced rates of mortality, cirrhosis, and liver transplantation in primary ...

Dec 20th, 2011 - Action Points The frequency of liver transplantation for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) increased six-fold over the past 15 years. Post-transplant survival of NASH patients proved superior to that of all but four other types of recipients: primary biliary cirrhosis, primary sclerosing cholangitis, autoimmune hepatitis, and hepatitis B infection (HBV). The frequency of liver transplantation...

Oct 9th, 2018 - Action Points An international study following patients with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) who underwent liver transplantation found that diagnosis of PBC before age 50, liver transplantation before age 60, use of tacrolimus for immunosuppression, and biochemical evidence of severe cholestasis within 6 months of transplant were all risk factors for recurrent PBC. Recurrent PBC was associate...

Dec 27th, 2017 - Laura W. Goff, MD   Associate Professor, Medicine Associate Director, Hematology/ Oncology Fellowship Program Marc Roth, MD   Resident Department of Internal Medicine Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Nashville, Tennessee Biliary tract cancers (BTCs) are rare but deadly diseases, subdivided into intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (IHCC), extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (EHCC), and gallbladder carcin...

Apr 8th, 2016 - (Reuters) -- An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday unanimously backed the accelerated approval of Intercept Pharmaceuticals' drug to treat a rare liver condition. The drug, obeticholic acid (OCA), is being reviewed for use in patients with primary biliary cholangitis, a condition in which the body mistakes the bile ducts in the liver as foreign objects and tries...

Jun 6th, 2018 - A lipid-lowering drug also works in primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) to normalize biochemical liver measures, researchers found. Among patients randomized to 24 months of bezafibrate therapy on top of ursodeoxycholic acid, 31% had a complete biochemical response -- in the form of normal levels of total bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, aminotransferases, and albumin, as well as a normal prothro...

Feb 21st, 2018 - Almost 25% of bariatric surgery patients reported taking opioids a year after the procedure, according to a recent analysis. Here's what experts had to say about the potential of noninvasive tests for diagnosing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The FDA recently issued a warning that a daily dose of obeticholic acid (Ocaliva) in patients with moderate-to-severe primary biliary cholangitis or l...

Apr 23rd, 2019 - In primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), the gut microbiota has impaired the correlation network between bacteria and fungi, suggesting that fungi could contribute to the pathogenesis and progression of PSC, according to French researchers. Writing online in Gut, Harry Sokol, MD, PhD, of Hôpital Saint-Antoine in Paris, and colleagues said the finding may pave the way for new diagnostic biomarke...

Feb 1st, 2018 - The FDA said it will now require a boxed warning on obeticholic acid (Ocaliva) regarding correct dosing in patients with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), following up on concerns the agency initially expressed last September. Obeticholic acid is supposed to be given once or twice weekly at 5-10 mg in patients with a prior decompensation event or with PBC of Child-Pugh class B or C -- but some...

May 14th, 2019 - The so-called Nancy histological index (NHI) of disease activity could be useful for risk stratification in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients, according to researchers in France. IBD patients undergoing colonoscopic surveillance for colorectal neoplasia (CRN) had an increased risk of an initial lesion if they had persistent NHI-assessed histological acute inflammation and quiescent dise...

Oct 9th, 2019 - All adult patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis should be screened at least annually for cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancer, particularly in the first year after their diagnosis, according to a clinical update published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Individuals with primary sclerosing cholangitis have a 400-fold higher risk of cholangiocarcinoma, compared with the g.

Oct 9th, 2019 - All adult patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis should be screened at least annually for cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancer, particularly in the first year after their diagnosis, according to a clinical update published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Individuals with primary sclerosing cholangitis have a 400-fold higher risk of cholangiocarcinoma, compared with the g.

Jun 1st, 2016 - In Reply: We thank Dr. Mirrakhimov and colleagues for bringing important questions to our attention.

Mar 15th, 2019 - At Digestive Diseases: New Advances (DDNA 2019), Dr. Julie A.

Apr 25th, 2019 - VIENNA – Patients with persistent liver abnormalities from primary biliary cholangitis despite combined treatment with ursodeoxycholic acid and obeticholic acid often responded to additional treatment with bezafibrate in a single-center study of 10 patients treated for 6 months. Mitchel L.

Oct 9th, 2019 - All adult patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis should be screened at least annually for cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancer, particularly in the first year after their diagnosis, according to a clinical practice update published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Individuals with primary sclerosing cholangitis have a 400-fold higher risk of cholangiocarcinoma, compared w.