Gastroenterology
Expert perspectives on IBD, liver disease, motility disorders, and GI diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
Recent Discussions
What factors can lead to falsely elevated fibrosis readings on FibroScan (e.g., consuming sugar before the scan)?
I recommend 3 hours of fasting before performing a FibroScan. Liver stiffness may not be equivalent to fibrosis stages in the following conditions: liver congestion (right-sided heart failure, Fontan-associated liver disease), active liver inflammation (alcohol, active viral or autoimmune hepatitis)...
In a patient with intermittent pouchitis who has up to 3 acute pouchitis episodes that respond well to antibiotics, how do you manage leakage of stool, especially at night?
Leakage at night is an expected outcome in a pouch patient. Women who have given birth or older patients who have weaker anal sphincters are susceptible to this. First, make sure they do not have cuffitis or pouchitis. Anorectal manometry will identify this with depressed pressure/tone. A cotton ple...
What is your approach to management of elevated liver enzymes in patients who recently started treatment with tocilizumab?
This is an important concept because anyone using tocilizumab will eventually wrestle with this question. The question, though, does not tell you whether this is the first time a practitioner sees the liver enzyme elevation, or how high the liver enzymes rose. Since everyone should have had a lipid ...
How long do you anticoagulate for cirrhosis patients who have portal vein thrombosis extending to the mesenteric veins?
I recommend indefinite anticoagulation for most patients with portal vein thrombosis, and at least 3-6 months if there are risk factors for bleeding. Once they complete anticoagulation for the first 6 months, I re-evaluate their risk of recurrent thrombosis vs bleeding, and if there is an underlying...
How do you approach managing nausea and GI side effects when initiating methotrexate?
There are several strategies to minimize nausea and gastrointestinal symptoms with the use of methotrexate. The medication can be taken with food, just not with caffeine. The dose can be split throughout the day it is taken such as half the dose in the morning and the other half in the evening. The ...
When and how should we be stopping GLP-1 Receptor Agonist/Dual Agonist therapy?
I usually continue for 3-4 years, the tapering down slowly over 1 year period, buy then the set point for energy expenditure and appetite likely is changed.
When and how do you do testing for disaccharidases on GI biopsies?
You can send two biopsies from the 3rd portion of the duodenum for enzyme assays, but it might be easier just to do simple disaccharide absorption tests.
Do you prescribe respiratory muscle training (RMT) devices to patients with dysphagia?
We encounter dysphagia frequently in our patients with Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders. If there are any concerns about swallowing or aspiration, my first step is to refer to Speech Therapy for evaluation, and I defer to their expertise for specific treatments from there. That said,...
What factors make you consider an EUS before embarking on an ERCP for concern for type 1 Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction, (appropriate biliary symptoms, dilatation of ducts with no stones on MRCP, and liver labs suggestive of cholestasis)?
When clinical presentation is not typical for SOD and imaging raises the question of an anatomical/structural cause, or history of idiopathic recurrent pancreatitis, a diagnostic EUS may be helpful in this context. If the clinical presentation with LFTs and imaging meets criteria for type 1 SOD, EUS...
When and how should we use biomarkers (i.e., CRP, stool calprotectin, mAb levels) to guide or optimize medical management of Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis?
The principal clinical applications of biomarkers in IBD are as follows: Assessment of severity and prognosis during a flareup. Monitoring the efficacy of treatment. Determining the probability of postoperative recurrence of Crohn’s disease (i.e., the high negative predictive value of FPC for anasto...