Liver diseases are amongst the most common diseases worldwide and manifest as a parenchymatic and/or biliary injury due to several causes as well as focal liver lesions, ranging from benign to malignant ones. The diagnosis of liver diseases is based mainly on biochemical and advanced imaging studies and, when required, on liver biopsy. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), which combines endoscopy and ultrasonography, is one of the main examination techniques used in gastroenterology as it is applied to evaluate abnormalities in the lumen of the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract and to define pancreatic and hepato-biliary features, often in chronic patients. Given its high spatial resolution and its proximity to the liver, EUS is gaining popularity in the diagnostic work up of liver diseases. This is a comprehensive overview of the current literature on the diagnostic indications for EUS use in patients with liver diseases. We performed a MEDLINE\PubMed and Embase search, and all articles that were relevant, after reviewing abstracts, were assessed and the full text was analyzed to extract data regarding technical success, diagnostic yield, bioptic characteristics, and complications rate. EUS-guided imaging and biopsy techniques in liver diseases have shown consistent favorable promising results among the reports through the literature, with an excellent diagnostic yield and safety profile, especially in the context of focal lesions and portal hypertension. The application of EUS in the diagnosis of liver diseases is a promising technique and should be considered as a first-line therapeutic option in selected cases.

Background: Treatment of cholangitis complicating choledocholithiasis includes biliary sphincterotomy and stone extraction. In certain cases of elderly comorbid patients with high risk for definitive endoscopic treatment, biliary stenting is the only measure for relieving biliary obstruction. Aim: We aimed to report the safety of retained biliary stone. Methods: a multi-center, retrospective case-control study conducted at two Israeli medical centers from January 2013 to December 2018 including all patients 18 years of age or older who underwent ERCP and biliary stent insertion for the treatment of acute cholangitis due to choledocholithiasis. Results: Three-hundred and eight patients were identified. Eighty-three patients had retained long-term biliary stents of more than 6 months (group A) from insertion compared to 225 patients whose biliary stents were removed within a 6-month period (group B). The mean follow-up in group A was 66.1± 16.3 vs. 11.1 ± 2.7 weeks in group B. Overall complications during the follow-up were similar between groups A and B (6% vs. 4.9%, OR 1.24, Chi square 0.69). Similarly, the rate of each complication alone was not different when comparing group A to group B (3.6%, 1.2% and 1.2% vs. 2.7%, 0.44% and 1.8%) for cholangitis, stent related pancreatitis and biliary colic, respectively (Chi square 0.85). Even after 12 months, the rates of overall complications and each complication alone were not higher compared to less than 12 months (Chi square 0.72 and 0.8, respectively). Conclusion: endoscopic biliary stenting for cholangitis complicating choledocholithiasis is safe for the long-term period without increase in stent related complications.

Both cardiovascular and gastrointestinal disorders represent considerable health burden on community clinics and hospitals with overwhelming economic cost. An overlap in the occurrence of these disorders is encountered in daily practice. Both affect each other in bidirectional manner through several mechanisms including altered hemodynamics, systemic inflammation, bacterial overgrowth and interactions and adverse effects of medications. In addition, to the known overlap in the symptoms occurrence of upper gastrointestinal tract diseases and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Awareness of this interplay and its clinical manifestations optimizes patient management, and could prevent catastrophic consequences and even save lives. In this review, we highlighted the clinical aspects of this bidirectional association between gastrointestinal and CVDs aiming to shed light on this topic and improve patients’ care.

The yield of biochemical analysis of pancreatic cysts fluid obtained via fine needle aspiration (FNA) is limited. We aimed to assess whether biochemical cyst analysis correlates with the endoscopic ultra-sonographic (EUS) diagnosis. A retrospective study including patients who underwent EUS-FNA was performed. Agreement level between EUS diagnosis and biochemical analysis was reported. One-hundred-and-eleven patients were included. For cyst CEA level, 42.4% of patients with endoscopic diagnosis of pancreatic mucinous cystic neoplasm (intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) and mucinous cystic neoplasms (MCN)) had CEA level >192 ng/mL vs. 15.8% of patients who had another endoscopic diagnosis (chi square = 0.03) with poor agreement level (Kappa = 0.130). For the serous cystadenoma (SCA), the levels of amylase and CEA were defined as <250 unit/L and <5 ng/mL, respectively. Eight patients (57.1%) had amylase of 250 unit/L (chi square = 0.007). The agreement level between EUS diagnosis of SCA and amylase level was poor (Kappa = 0.231). For cyst CEA level, 71.4% had CEA level 5 ng/mL (chi square < 0.001) with fair agreement level (Kappa = 0.495). EUS-FNA for pancreatic cystic lesions poorly correlated with the EUS diagnosis. FNA should be considered in the setting of EUS worrisome findings.

Tachycardia prior to endoscopic procedures is commonly encountered which reflect patient anxiety status. Despite this frequent occurrence, it is unclear if in a patient with tachycardia sedation dose should be modified. The aim of our study was to assess the effect of pre-endoscopic tachycardia on sedation dose. A retrospective analysis of all patients who underwent upper endoscopy and colonoscopy at EMMS Nazareth hospital were performed. We excluded patients with diseases and medications affecting the heart rate. A total of 2855 patients were included in the study. Two-hundred and thirty-seven patients had tachycardia before endoscopy (8.3%, group A) as compared to 2618 (group B) patients who had heart rate ≤100 beats per minute. The mean dosage of propofol in group A was significantly higher (62.6±33.2 mg vs. 57.4±29.9 mg) than in group B (P=0.01). There was no difference in the cecal intubation rate among the two groups (P=0.9). Notably, the adenoma detection rate was significantly lower among group A patients as compared to group B (13.6% vs. 22.8%, P=0.02) patients. There were no sedation related complications. Tachycardia prior to endoscopic procedures was associated with higher sedative dosage and lower adenoma detection rate, however no major complications were recorded. These data should be taken into consideration to optimize procedure quality.