by Monika Pliszka  and Leszek Szablewski

Received: 06 March 2020;  Published: 07 August 2020;  doi: 10.21926/obm.hg.2003050

The human gut is a house to approximately 1,000 different species of bacteria. The bacterial composition of gut microbiota is influenced by several factors, including age, sex, mode of delivery, geographical location, ethnicity, diet, drugs, and administration of prebiotics and/or probiotics. Similarly, human health depends on the composition of gut microbiome, with gut bacteria playing a crucial role in human physiology. For instance, gut microbiota synthesizes vitamins and amino acids, and affects the biotransfor [...]

by Brett W. Sadowski  and Coleman I. Smith

Received: 14 May 2020;  Published: 20 July 2020;  doi: 10.21926/obm.hg.2003049

The combination of broad screening initiatives and development of effective antiviral therapies have led to a revolution in the treatment of hepatitis C virus and has reduced the proportion of patients with the virus who develop a need for liver transplantation in favor of other etiologies, such as alcohol-related liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. However, the opioid epidemic and rise in injection drug use in the United States has simultaneously led to otherwise healthy hepatitis C viremic patients d [...]

by Katsuhisa Omagari  , Risa Kumamoto  , Yuko Koyama  , Masako Suzuta  , Asami Taniguchu  , Ayumi Fukuda  , Momoe Iwami  , Kazunori Koba  , Asako Kawaguchi  and Kazunori Otsuka

Received: 10 April 2020;  Published: 19 May 2020;  doi: 10.21926/obm.hg.2002048

Chronic constipation and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are two of the most common functional gastrointestinal disorders, both of which negatively affect the quality of life of the patients. Since people may have co-existing symptoms of multiple disorders, chronic constipation and IBS with predominant constipation cannot be clearly distinguished. In this cross-sectional study, data were obtained from self-administered questionnaires to assess the prevalence of chronic constipation and IBS, and their overlap, among [...]

by Srinivasan Periasamy  , Se-Ping Chien  , Chen Hsu  , Dur-Zong Hsu  and Ming-Yie Liu

Received: 10 March 2020;  Published: 18 May 2020;  doi: 10.21926/obm.hg.2002047

Metformin has been widely used as a therapeutic drug for hyperglycemia and diabetes. Sleep is a vital and restorative process that is necessary for the proper functioning of organs. Sleep deprivation can induce multi-organ injury, including damage to the pancreas and liver that may result in hyperglycemia and diabetes. We studied the role of metformin in reversing sleep deprivation-induced hyperglycemia and pancreatic and liver dysfunction in mice. Mice were kept in cages and fed water and food ad libitum. Mice wer [...]

by Haris Muhammad  , Muhammad Hammami  , Peng-sheng Ting  , Cem Simsek  , Behnam Saberi  and Ahmet Gurakar

Received: 02 February 2020;  Published: 24 April 2020;  doi: 10.21926/obm.hg.2002046

Liver transplantation has steadily increased worldwide resulting in a large number of patients on the waiting list. Due to the opioid epidemic in the US, the pool of Hepatitis C seropositive donors increased significantly in recent years. Direct acting antivirals played an instrumental role in making liver transplantation with hepatitis C positive allograft an acceptable option. Although hepatitis C positive liver transplantation to hepatitis C positive recipients is a common practice, there is limited data and agr [...]

by Jean-François Cadranel  and Jean-Baptiste Nousbaum

Received: 21 August 2019;  Published: 15 April 2020;  doi: 10.21926/obm.hg.2002045

The literature on the prevalence of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) in cirrhotic outpatients who visited the hospital for therapeutic abdominal paracentesis was reviewed in order to assess the usefulness of urinary strips in this setting. The authors reviewed the studies published as peer-reviewed articles on the prevalence of SBP in ambulatory outpatients who visited the hospital for therapeutic paracentesis. Five such studies were available in the literature. It was found that the prevalence of SBP was in [...]

by Hsuan-Wei Chen  , Hsuan-Hwai Lin  , Yu-Lueng Shih  , Tsai-Yuan Hsieh  and Jung-Chun Lin

Received: 23 February 2020;  Published: 30 March 2020;  doi: 10.21926/obm.hg.2001044

by Tommy Sundqvist  , Lars Stenhammar  , Bo Tjellström  , Karl-Eric Magnusson  , Tore Midtvedt  , Elisabeth Norin  and Lotta Högberg

Received: 07 February 2020;  Published: 09 March 2020;  doi: 10.21926/obm.hg.2001043

by Pier Alberto Testoni  and Sabrina Testoni

Received: 17 October 2019;  Published: 23 December 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.hg.1904042

Recurrent acute pancreatitis (RAP) is a clinical entity characterized by episodes of acute pancreatitis which occurs on more than one occasion. Recurrence of pancreatitis generally occurs in a setting of a normal anatomical and functional gland, however, a chronic disease at early stage may be found either on the occasion of the first episode of pancreatitis or during the follow-up. The etiology of RAP can be identified in up to 70% of cases; for the remaining cases the term “idiopathic” is used. Most common caus [...]

by Ken Sato  , Atsushi Naganuma  , Shuichi Saito  , Yuichi Yamazaki  , Takeshi Kobayashi  , Hiroki Tojima  , Norio Horiguchi  , Satoru Kakizaki  , Toshio Uraoka  , Hiroshi Ohnishi  and Hiroaki Okamoto

Received: 29 September 2019;  Published: 17 December 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.hg.1904041

Background: Daclatasvir/asunaprevir/beclabuvir (DCV/ASV/BCV) combination therapy had been available for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C patients with genotype 1 (CHG1) in Japan. Our aim was to report the efficacy and safety of DCV/ASV/BCV in patients experiencing treatment failure with interferon (IFN)-free direct-acting antiviral agent (DAA)-based therapies, which have not been fully evaluated. Methods: We evaluated the efficacy and safety of 12-week DCV/ASV/BCV combination therapy for CHG1 patients experien [...]