Medina La

Hepatitis tóxica por imatinib: descripción de dos casos y revisión de la literatura médica

Imatinib is currently the treatment of choice in chronic myeloid leukemia. The use of this drug is safe, although some cases of imatinib-induced toxic hepatitis have been reported. We present 2 patients treated with this drug who developed acute anicteric hepatitis months after starting treatment. We also review 20 reports of individual cases to characterize imatinib-induced hepatitis. Imatinib-induced hepatitis has a variable latency period, frequently of several months. Half of the patients develop anicteric hepatitis and the clinical course is generally benign. A distinguishing feature of this entity is a transitory increase in transaminase levels in patients diagnosed with hepatitis in the weeks after treatment withdrawal. Resumption of imatinib use provokes hepatitis recurrence, which can be avoided by simultaneous prednisone administration.

Duodeno-gastric reflux: An endoscopic study

In a systematic endoscopic study, duodenogastric reflux was observed in one-fifth of subjects with no digestive disease. But reflux occurred with more than twice that frequency in patients with duodenal and gastric ulcers, achlorhydria, and alcoholic cirrhosis.

Follow-up studies of 36 patients with atrophic gastritis

SummaryThe clinical, endoscopical and histological follow-up of 36 patients with atrophic gastritis is presented. The observatoin period ranged from 3 to 10 years (average 5.6 years).No cases of gastric carcinoma were shown, clinically or gastroscopically. Localized gastric lesions were detected in 7 cases (3 single gastric polyps, 3 cases of xantelasma and 1 case of asymptomatic prepyloric peptic ulcer). The state of the gastric mucosa remained essentially unchanged in the 75% of the rebiopsied patients.