INTRODUCTION: Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in coronavirus-19 disease (COVID-19) have been reported with great variability and without standardization. In hospitalized patients, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of GI symptoms, factors associated with their occurrence, and variation at 1 month. METHODS: The GI-COVID-19 is a prospective, multicenter, controlled study. Patients with and without COVID-19 diagnosis were recruited at hospital admission and asked for GI symptoms at admission and after 1 month, using the validated Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale questionnaire. RESULTS: The study included 2036 hospitalized patients. A total of 871 patients (575 COVID+ and 296 COVID−) were included for the primary analysis. GI symptoms occurred more frequently in patients with COVID-19 (59.7%; 343/575 patients) than in the control group (43.2%; 128/296 patients) (P < 0.001). Patients with COVID-19 complained of higher presence or intensity of nausea, diarrhea, loose stools, and urgency as compared with controls. At a 1-month follow-up, a reduction in the presence or intensity of GI symptoms was found in COVID-19 patients with GI symptoms at hospital admission. Nausea remained increased over controls. Factors significantly associated with nausea persistence in COVID-19 were female sex, high body mass index, the presence of dyspnea, and increased C-reactive protein levels. DISCUSSION: The prevalence of GI symptoms in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 is higher than previously reported. Systemic and respiratory symptoms are often associated with GI complaints. Nausea may persist after the resolution of COVID-19 infection.

Background: Long noncoding RNAs increase the overexpression of oncogenes. Cancer development and metastasis of cancer may occur as a result of overexpression of oncogenes. Polymorphisms in the genes (such as HOTAIR, etc.) in which long noncoding RNAs are synthesized affect the expression of these genes. Therefore, these polymorphisms may play a role in cancer development and cancer metastasis. The present study aimed to evaluate the association between HOTAIR gene rs1899663 G>T polymorphism with colorectal cancer. Methods: The current study examined the HOTAIR gene rs1899663 G>T polymorphism in 100 patients with colorectal cancer and 93 healthy persons by a real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results: The G and T allele frequencies of the HOTAIR rs1899663 polymorphism were significantly different between the case and control groups (P = .01). The persons carrying the G allele had a protective effect against colorectal cancer, while individuals carrying the T allele were predisposed to colorectal cancer (P = .001). Four of 5 colorectal cancer recurrence patients had the TT genotype (P = .02). Conclusion: This research is the first to demonstrate the relationship between colorectal cancer and the HOTAIR gene rs1899663 polymorphism in the Turkish population, which is a Caucasian population. Our results suggest that the rs1899663 G allele has a protective role for colorectal cancer in the Turkish population. However, it would be appropriate to conduct this research with a larger sample to confirm this result in the Turkish population Cite this article as: Yalınbaş Kaya B, Peker B, Tuğrul F, Alkan Tali Ö, Bayram S. Association of HOTAIR rs1899663 G>T polymorphism with colorectal cancer in the Turkish population: A case–control study. Turk J Gastroenterol. 2022;33(8):689-695.

AIM: The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical features and risk factors affecting bleeding in patients with angiodysplasia. MATERIA L AND METHOD: This retrospective study was conducted between January 2016 and December 2019, and included patients who underwent endoscopy/colonoscopy examination for any reason at two institutions (n=2177). Patients with angiodysplasia were divided into two groups according to their bleeding status, and their clinical features and risk factors affecting bleeding were analyzed. RESULTS: Angiodysplasia was detected in 44 (2.02%) patients who underwent endoscopy and colonoscopy. Bleeding was detected in 25% (n=11) of patients with angiodysplasia. Warfarin use frequency (p=0.016) and heart disease frequency (p=0.008) were higher in patients with angiodysplasia with bleeding. Hemoglobin (p=0.001), hematocrit (p < 0.001), platelet levels (p=0.009) and total iron binding capacity (p=0.036) were found to be significantly lower in patients with bleeding angiodysplasia. It was found that patients using warfarin had a 12.917-fold higher risk of bleeding than nonusers (OR:12.917, 95%CI: 2.014-82.830, p=0.007). Bleeding was not associated with age (p=0.196), gender (p=0.326), number of lesions (p=0.063), gastric lesion (p=0.880), duodenal lesion (p=0.472), colonic lesion (p=0.947), size of lesion (p=0.789), nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs use (p=0.631), hypertension (p=0.163), cirrhosis (p=0.179), coronary artery disease (p=0.448) and heart diseases (p=0.207). CONCLUSION: The use of warfarin increases the risk of bleeding in patients with gastrointestinal angiodysplasia. Risk factors affecting bleeding in patients with gastrointestinal angiodysplasia need to be evaluated in comprehensive prospective studies.