Search

Zenker's peroral endoscopic myotomy (Z-POEM) has revolutionized the therapeutic strategy for Zenker's diverticulum (ZD) with promising results. We conducted this meta-analysis to estimate the safety and efficacy of Z-POEM for ZD and compare the feasibility and effectiveness of Z-POEM with that of flexible endoscopic septotomy (FES).A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases to query for studies that assessed the safety and efficacy of Z-POEM for ZD. All articles published from inception to July 31, 2021 were included. The primary outcomes were the overall technical success rate, clinical success rate, incidence of adverse events, and clinical recurrence rate.Eleven studies involving 357 patients undergone Z-POEM were included. Overall, the quality of included studies was above average, with five studies rated as high quality and six ranked as moderate quality. The overall pooled technical success rate for Z-POEM was 96.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] 93.6-97.9%; IZ-POEM could be an effective and safe therapeutic modality for ZD, and even has a slightly higher clinical success rate than FES. However, comparative studies with long-term follow-up will be needed to further confirm our finding.

Hepatitis C (HC) is a global health issue, with an estimated 350,000 people dying annually from this liver-related disease. This study determined the development trends and research hotspots regarding HC by investigating the related articles within the past ten years.Publications on HC were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) on June 6, 2022. Bibliometric visualization was conducted through VOSviewer and CiteSpace. Original articles and reviews served as the foundation for this analytical research.Of the total 17,773 records of HC research published from 2013 to 2022, the top 1,000 articles were retrieved and distributed among 78 countries and 270 journals. The US, where 7 of the top 10 institutions were located, mainly contributed to the study (51.9%). Johns Hopkins University distributed the most related articles (45 articles). Hepatology (IF 2021 = 17.298) ranked first, with 109 articles in the top 10 journals. Dore GJ was the most productive author (40 articles). The keywords of sustained virologic response, therapy, sofosbuvir, cirrhosis, ledipasvir, and hepatocellular carcinoma offered hints regarding research hotspots. The burst keywords regarding the virus, like HCV, HIV, and care and intervention showed as research frontiers.Treatment has been a trending topic in HC research, and future research may focus more on HCV and HIV co-infection, treatment, and elimination of HC.

Background: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a serious and common complication of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP), and the early identification and intervention of ARDS are particularly important. This study aimed to construct predictive models for ARDS using early indicators of inpatients. Methods: The 214 SAP patients included were randomly divided into training set and test set, and the back propagation artificial neural networks (BP ANNs) and logistic regression (LR) models were trained by the training set, and then the performance of the two models was examined by the test set. Results: The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), accuracy and area under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) value of BP ANNs were 68.0%, 87.5%, 77.3%, 81.4%, 80.0%, 0.853 ± 0.054 (95%CI: 0.749-0.958). The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, accuracy and AUC value of logistic regression were 48.7%, 85.3%, 65.5%, 74.4%, 72.0%, 0.799 ± 0.045 (95%CI: 0.710-0.888). There were no significant differences between the BP ANNs and LR models in these parameters. Conclusion: Compared to the LR model, the BP ANNs model showed only a mild improvement in predictive performance in our study without significant differences. However, we still believe BP ANNs models have a bright future in clinical outcome prediction.

Peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) achieves a satisfactory short-term clinical response in patients with achalasia. However, data on mid- and long-term clinical outcomes are limited. We aimed to assess the mid- and long-term efficacy and safety of POEM in achalasia patients.Using the pre-designed search strategy, we identified relevant studies that evaluated the efficacy and safety of POEM with a minimum of 2-year follow-up in the Embase, Cochrane, and PubMed databases from inception to January 2021. Primary outcome was pooled mid- and long-term clinical success rate based on the Eckardt score. Secondary outcome was pooled long-term reflux-related adverse events.A total of 21 studies involving 2,698 patients were included. Overall, the pooled clinical success rates with 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-year follow-ups were 91.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] 88.4-93.6%), 90.4% (95% CI 88.1-92.2%), 89.8% (95% CI 83.6-93.9%), and 82.2% (95% CI 76.6-86.7%), respectively. Besides, the pooled long-term clinical success rates for type I, II, and III achalasia were 86.1% (95% CI 80.9-90.1%; IPOEM is associated with a long-term clinical success of 82.2% after 5 years of follow-up. Randomized control trials comparing POEM with laparoscopic Heller myotomy or pneumatic dilation with longer follow-up periods are needed to further demonstrate the long-term safety and efficacy of POEM.

Review of retracted articles has a positive impact on scientific research. The aim of our study was to examine the characteristics of retracted articles in the field of pancreatic diseases.The Retraction Watch database was queried for retractions in pancreatic diseases on 7 March 2021, and the filters set were as follows: (1) the Title typed in was "pancreatitis", "pancreas", or "pancreatic"; (2) the Nature of notice selected was "retraction".A total of 116 retracted articles were identified as pancreatic disease-related, with over two-thirds of them pertaining to pancreatic cancer. Research article was the most common article type among these retractions. Common reasons given for retraction included scientific fraud (37.1%), duplication (26.7%), and reliability (25%). China had the largest number of retractions (n=51), followed by the United States (n=47). Most articles were retracted in recent years, particularly after 2015.A large proportion of retracted articles pertaining to pancreatic diseases have been retracted in recent years. The majority of publications-over three quarters-were retracted for authors who committed some type of misconduct. Differences between countries in the manner of misconduct were stark.