[Effectiveness and safety of endosonography-guided liver biopsy in liver disease at a level III public hospital]

Parenchymal liver diseases are commonly evaluated by laboratory and imaging studies. However, in some cases a liver biopsy is required. Endoscopic ultrasonography-guided liver biopsy (EUS-LB) has been reported as a procedure with high diagnostic yield (90-100%) with low adverse event profile, but there are not studies which report about the experience and technique in our country.

OBJECTIVE

Determinate the effectiveness and the safety of endosonography-guided liver biopsy in liver parenchymal disease.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A prospective study was conducted at a III-2 level of care Public Hospital in Lima, Peru. It included patients over 18 years of age with suspicion of parenchymal liver disease who underwent EUS-LB for study hepatic parenchymal disease since March of 2018 to October of 2022.

RESULTS

The diagnostic yield of the biopsies was 77.02%, with a mean length of the sample of 13.98mm (standard deviation 7.34) and a median of 8 complete portal spaces (0-50). Only 31.25% of the procedures were performed with a fine needle biopsy (FNB), finding a significant difference between the type of needle and the diagnostic yield (p=0.01). The most common histopathological diagnosis was autoinmune hepatitis. There were 2.08% of post-procedure complications.

CONCLUSIONS

EUS-LB for the diagnosis of liver parenchymal disease had a diagnostic yield close to 80% in our region with a low profile of adverse events. However, more prospectives studies with a larger number of patients are required.

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided celiac plexus neurolysis in pancreatic cancer-associated pain: different technical approaches in three challenging cases

Abdominal pain is severe in the vast majority of patients with pancreatic cancer. In some cases, chronic use of analgesics markedly reduces quality of life due to side effects. Endoscopic ultrasound-guided celiac plexus neurolysis is a procedure that controls cancer-associated pain in this population and consists of injecting a neurolytic agent around or within the celiac plexus. In this report, we present three cases with different technical approaches for celiac plexus neurolysis.

Peroral endoscopic myotomy in a pediatric patient with refractory achalasia: a case report and review of the literature

A 15-year-old male patient presented with dysphagia, regurgitation, weight loss and retrosternal pain. The diagnosis of achalasia was made 4 years before. The esophagogram revealed severe esophagus dilatation and the classic "bird-beak" termination. A Heller myotomy plus fundoplication and endoscopic balloon dilatation were conducted four months previously. Nevertheless, the symptoms persisted and the last high-resolution manometry study still showed achalasia type II. The patient underwent a peroral endoscopic esophageal myotomy (POEM). POEM is a feasible and safe procedure for experienced and properly-equipped health care delivery centers and could be used as a rescue treatment in refractory achalasia. We present the youngest patient with achalasia in our region who had a successful response to rescue POEM.

Medical compliance to evidence-based clinical guidelines on secondary prevention of coronary heart disease in a hospital from Lima, Peru: a retrospective study

INTRODUCTION

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality worldwide. When an acute myocardial infarction occurs, it is necessary to establish secondary prevention measures, which can reduce mortality by 50%. Clinical guidelines state that the optimal medical treatment is based upon four groups of drugs: antiplatelet drugs, statins, beta-blockers and angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitor or angiotensin II receptor antagonist.

OBJECTIVE

To determine physician compliance to evidence-based clinical practice guidelines on secondary prevention of coronary heart disease.

METHODS

Retrospective, observational study in Hospital Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru. The study included patients with confirmed acute coronary syndrome from February 2011 to February 2013. Medical records, laboratory results and medical therapy at discharge were collected and were compared to the American Heart Association type I, evidence level A recommendations. In addition, patient follow-up visits to the outpatient cardiology clinic at 1, 3 and 6 months after discharge were analyzed.

RESULTS

The study population included 143 patients. Eighty-nine (89) patients were admitted with the diagnosis of unstable angina and non-ST-segment elevation (62.2%) and 54 had ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (37.8%). Forty patients (28%) received all four recommended medications at discharge, which decreased at 1, 3 and 6 months after discharge to 12.6%, 7% and 3.5% respectively. The results showed a significant reduction in patient compliance to follow-up visits with a 48% reduction at the first visit to 10% on the last visit.

CONCLUSION

Medical compliance to guidelines recommendations in secondary cardiovascular prevention is suboptimal with a compliance score under 50%.

[Behaviors in response to the tuberculin skin test conversion in medical students from a university in Lima, Peru]

The aim of this study was to determine the behaviors in response to tuberculin skin test (PPD) conversion and the reasons for starting or not starting treatment for latent tuberculosis infection (TILT) among medical students at a university in Lima, Peru. A total of 548 participants completed a questionnaire; of them, 6.7% tested positive on university admission and 11.1% were recent converters. A total of 55.7% did not start TILT and had no explanation. Of the recent converters, most students who did start TILT were >22 years old (p = 0.01) and correctly answered general knowledge questions (p = 0.04). It is important to note that the PPD conversion rate was higher than that reported in the literature and that most students did not follow the treatment prophylaxis because of a lack of information.