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Esophageal papilloma, an infrequent benign tumor, and esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma sometimes appear to be associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, HPV being implicated in anogenital carcinogenesis. Our aim was to assess whether there is any epidemiological difference in terms of risk factors for papilloma and cancer. From 1989 to 1996, a total of 12,011 patients (53% male, median age 52.7 years) were submitted to esophagogastroduodenoscopy by our Digestive Endoscopy Service. The genome of HPV was sought by PCR using 2 different primer sets. Of the total, 42 subjects (0.35%), 50% male with a mean age of 45.1 years, were suffering from esophageal squamous-cell papilloma and 45 (0.37%), 91% male with a mean age of 63.0 years, from esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma. Of these patients, only 2 with papilloma were HPV(+). Compared with the general endoscopic population, patients with papilloma do not present significantly different characteristics (even in terms of frequency of esophagitis and hiatal hernia). Those with carcinoma differ significantly both from the general endoscopic population and from those with papilloma in that they are more often male (p < 0. 0001), older (p < 0.0001) and drinkers (p < 0.0001); they differ significantly only from the general population, but not from the papilloma patients, in smoking habits. Papilloma appears to be neither a lesion involving a risk of development into a malignancy nor a marker for any such risk. Environmental factors, such as alcohol and smoking, appear to play a decisive role in esophageal carcinogenesis in northern Italy.

We investigated the epidemiologic, clinical, and radiologic aspects of a mixed medicosurgical series of chronic pancreatitis patients observed at the University of Verona Centre for the Study of Pancreatic Diseases over the period 1971-1995.Even though the pathogenesis of chronic pancreatitis has yet to be clarified and the classification is still debatable, the patients were subdivided in accordance with the Marseilles-Rome classification into those with alcoholic, obstructive, familial, and idiopathic forms of the disease. A total of 715 patients were analysed with a median follow-up period of 10 years (range, 1-25 years).At the end of follow-up the dropout rate amounted to 7.1% (51 patients), and 176 patients (24.6%) had died. Data are reported about the type of chronic pancreatitis, sex, and age distribution at the onset of the disease, drinking and smoking habits before onset and during follow-up, and incidence of calcifications, pain, diabetes, steatorrhoea, and pseudocysts. Surgical aspects, survival curves, and causes of death are also analysed, and the most frequent concomitant diseases in chronic pancreatitis sufferers are discussed.

Obstructive jaundice due to an impacted stone in the common bile duct (CBD) was seen in a patient who had previously undergone Billroth II gastric resection and cholecystectomy. Surgical and endoscopic approaches to the common bile duct failed owing to pericholedochal adhesions and the excessive length of the duodenal loop. The patient was therefore treated percutaneously (sphincterotomy and stone extraction) without endoscopic control.

In humans chronic obstructive pancreatitis (COP) is thought to be a disease devoid of ductal stones. The aim of this study was to verify the presence and frequency of calcifications in patients with COP and compare them with those found in patients with chronic calcifying/calcific pancreatitis (CCP). We conducted a retrospective ERCP investigation in 115 patients with documented chronic pancreatitis. Only 75 could be safely classified as COP or CCP. Fifty-three patients (M:F ratio, 5.6:1; mean age, 36.1 ± 12.2 years) had CCP, 46 of whom (86.8%) with calcifications. Twenty-two patients (M:F ratio, 3.4:1; mean age, 45.3 ± 16.2 years; p < 0.05 vs. CCP) presented COP at endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, 8 (36.4%) with ductal calcifications (p < 0.0001 vs. CCP). COP was secondary to acute pancreatitis in nine cases, to odditis in 11 cases, and to malignant tumor and hypertrophy of Oddi's sphincter, respectively, in the other two cases. The two patient groups showed no significant differences in drinking and smoking habits, number of painful relapses, disease duration, and incidence of diabetes, gallstones, and need for surgery. In conclusion, formation of ductal stones is by no means rare in COP and should be classified as a form of lithiasic pancreatitis. Early restoration of pancreatic outflow by removing the obstruction, or by shunt-type operations and abstinence from drinking and smoking, should resolve this type of disease.

It is not known whether cigarette smoking plays a role as a risk factor in alcoholic pancreatitis. The aim of this study was to compare drinking and smoking habits in three groups of male subjects with an alcohol intake in excess of 40 g/day: (i) 67 patients with acute alcoholic pancreatitis, without other known potential causative agents; (ii) 396 patients with chronic alcoholic pancreatitis; and (iii) 265 control subjects randomly selected from the Verona polling lists and submitted to a complete medical checkup. The variables considered were age at onset of disease, years of drinking and smoking, daily alcohol intake in grams, number of cigarettes smoked daily, and body mass index (BMI). Cases differed from controls in daily grams of alcohol, number of cigarettes smoked and BMI (Mann-Whitney U test, p < 0.00001 for each comparison). Multivariate logistic regression analysis, comparing acute and chronic cases, respectively, versus controls, revealed an increased relative risk of pancreatitis in the two comparisons, associated in both cases with a higher alcohol intake (p < 0.00001) and cigarette smoking (p < 0.00001). No significant interaction between alcohol and smoking was noted, indicating that the two risks are independent. In conclusion, in males a higher number of cigarettes smoked daily seems to be a distinct risk factor in acute and chronic alcoholic pancreatitis.

The frequency and histological pattern of multiple hepatitis virus infection was studied in 161 Italian patients who had consecutively undergone liver biopsy from 1989 to 1991. The histological features were compared with that of infection with a single virus. Thirty-nine per cent of patients had evidence of past or present multiple infection, the commonest of which was hepatitis C virus (HCV) in patients with evidence of previous infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV). In general, the severity of the histological pattern of each viral infection was maintained even when more than one virus was involved; there was neither exacerbation nor diminution of the histological changes. The delta-virus (HDV) was not associated with severe necro-inflammatory lesions, but HDV-positive patients were few in this cohort. Lymphoid follicle formation (a putative histological marker of HCV infection) was also found in a high proportion of HCV-negative patients but expressing much HBcAg or HDAg in liver tissue. Possible explanations for this finding are that follicles are relatively non-specific for HCV infection, or that these cases represent HCV infection with false-negative serology. The results of this study suggest that multiple hepatitis virus infection is common in the population investigated and that HBV and HCV co-infection cannot be reliably diagnosed histologically. Whether double infection with these viruses influences the cirrhotic evolution of the liver lesion remains unclear.

Palliation is often the only treatment that can be offered to patients affected by esophageal malignancy. This prospective study was carried out in order to compare two endoscopic palliative treatments: Nd:YAG laser and local injection of 3% polidocanol. We randomized 34 patients with inoperable malignancies to one of the two treatments. After the first course, 88.8% of the patients in the laser group and 81.5% in the polidocanol group were able to swallow a normal oral caloric intake. Only one major complication (esophageal perforation) was observed (polidocanol group) and was successfully treated with endoscopic placement of a prosthesis. We believe that both techniques are safe and effective for the palliation of esophageal malignant strictures but that polidocanol injection is cheap, simple, and more widely available.