Katja Grubelić Ravić

MDR1 polymorphisms are associated with inflammatory bowel disease in a cohort of Croatian IBD patients

BackgroundInflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic diseases of unknown etiology and pathogenesis in which genetic factors contribute to development of disease. MDR1/ABCB1 is an interesting candidate gene for IBD. The role of two single nucleotide polymorphisms, C3435T and G2677T remains unclear due to contradictory results of current studies. Thus, the aims of this research were to investigate the association of MDR1 polymorphisms, C3435T and G2677T, and IBD.MethodsA total of 310 IBD patients, 199 Crohns disease (CD) patients and 109 ulcerative colitis (UC) patients, and 120 healthy controls were included in the study. All subjects were genotyped for G2677T/A and C3435T polymorphism using RT-PCR. In IBD patients, review of medical records was performed and patients were phenotyped according to the Montreal classification.ResultsSignificantly higher frequency of 2677T allele (p = 0.05; OR 1.46, 95% CI (1.0-2.14)) and of the 3435TT genotype was observed among UC patients compared to controls (p = 0.02; OR 2.12; 95% CI (1.11-4.03). Heterozygous carriers for C3435T were significantly less likely to have CD (p = 0.02; OR 0.58, 95% CI (0.36-0.91)). Haplotype analysis revealed that carriers of 3435T/2677T haplotype had a significantly higher risk of having UC (p = 0.02; OR 1.55; 95% CI (1.06-2.28)).ConclusionMDR1 polymorphisms are associated with both CD and UC with a stronger association with UC.

Differentiation of Pancreatic Masses via Endoscopic Ultrasound Strain Ratio Elastography Using Adjacent Pancreatic Tissue as the Reference.

Objectives The aims of this study were to evaluate diagnostic value of endoscopic ultrasound strain ratio elastography in patients with focal pancreatic masses and to determine the cutoff value between the pancreatic malignancies and inflammatory pancreatic masses using reference areas different than those used by other investigators. Methods In a prospective single-center study, strain ratio was measured in patients with pancreatic masses. After the diagnosis was established, statistical analysis was used to compare the group with pancreatic malignancies to the one with inflammatory masses. Results Strain ratio cutoff of 7.59 provided 100% sensitivity, 95% specificity, and 97% overall accuracy for differentiation of patients with pancreatic malignancies from those with inflammatory masses. Conclusions Our data show high sensitivity and specificity for the calculated strain ratio. Adjacent normal pancreatic tissue is adequate as a reference area based on the inclusion criteria. Diverse cutoff values and standardization of methods in the studies published so far require further investigations, before the implementation of the method in a routine clinical practice becomes possible.