Gastroenterology
Expert perspectives on IBD, liver disease, motility disorders, and GI diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
Recent Discussions
What therapies would be considered safe and effective in pregnant patients with EoE?
Management of EoE during pregnancy should be individualized using a shared decision-making model. Food elimination can lead to remission, but some patients have difficulty following the diet. Proton pump inhibitors, such as omeprazole and esomeprazole, and swallowed budesonide are safe during pregna...
How do you approach the management of older adult patients with coronary artery disease on aspirin who have developed intermittent diverticular bleeds?
This is a tough clinical scenario that comes up often in older adults. You will often have subspecialists involved and will need to adapt your approach to their management and communication styles. Generalists can add value here by looking at the whole picture and figuring out what matters most to t...
If you do not have easy access to shear wave elastography (aka Fibroscan), what do you recommend for non-invasive tests to determine if a MASLD patient has clinically significant portal hypertension and risk-stratify them?
Great question. I do magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), and if not possible, shear wave elastography (SWE). If I have access to only blood-based non-invasive liver disease assessment (NILDA), will then order enhanced liver fibrosis (ELF). However, for clinically significant portal hypertension (...
How soon after an acute upper GI bleed do you restart therapeutic anticoagulation in a patient with atrial fibrillation and a high thromboembolic risk (CHA₂DS₂-VASc ≥4)?
In real-world inpatient practice: ~72 hours after endoscopic control for high-stroke-risk AF with stable hemoglobin and no rebleeding. Extending hold to 5–7 days if the lesion is high risk or the bleed was severe.
What is your general approach to an immunocompetent patient with chronic, non-infectious diarrhea?
If the diarrhea has lasted more than a few weeks and all infectious workup is negative, then I'll send serologies for IBD/celiac, especially if there is any weight loss. Where we practice in New York City, these patients almost always end up getting an EGD/colonoscopy.
How do you approach surveillance and repeat biopsies in a patient with a diagnosis of intestinal metaplasia (aka Barrett's esophagus) on pathology who appears to have a regular Z-line or <1 cm of salmon mucosa?
I agree with the other responses to this question. One other aspect that can be tricky in patients where you did not do the index endoscopy is that many patients present with the expectation that they will need further surveillance, or have already been told that they will need surveillance at some ...
In patients with dysphagia and a normal esophagus on endoscopy, when is empiric dilation indicated?
This is somewhat controversial. There is some data that shows that some patients do experience improvement in swallowing following empiric esophageal dilation. This is more so the case in patients with solid food dysphagia, and when dilation does lead to some mucosal tearing. However, other studies ...
If an ulcerative colitis patient has a 90 percent response to a biologic or small molecule after over 12 months, would you consider switching medication to a different class in hopes of getting a complete response, versus trying adjunctive therapy?
I am not sure what you mean by “90%” response. Is that clinical, laboratory, or endoscopic? Perfection is the enemy of good, so you'd better have a compelling reason to make a patient add another therapy.
What Barrett's Esophagus screening protocol do you follow for patients with scleroderma given the increased risk of reflux and esophageal stasis?
This is an excellent question and is probably also relevant to mixed connective tissue disorder (MCTD) and overlap syndromes. My answer is a poor one - to my knowledge, we just do not have the data to guide us. I would certainly be more vigilant, but do not have a set protocol other than that for BE...
For a renal transplant patient on chronic immunosuppression with resolved esophageal symptoms (epigastric pain and intermittent dysphagia), does the presence of minimal CMV-positive cells on esophageal biopsy warrant preemptive antiviral therapy, or is clinical monitoring sufficient?
All things equal, in the average patient, if a patient has rare/minimal CMV-positive cells, it could occasionally represent a minimal infection or an incidental finding. However, in a transplant patient who is on immunosuppression, and especially one who has had recent symptoms (such as dysphagia in...