Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is an acute bacterial infection of ascitic fluid. It primarily occurs in patients with advanced cirrhosis and, generally, no source of the infecting agent is easily identifiable.
Fever, abdominal pain, altered mental status, abdominal tenderness, or hypotension in cirrhosis cases indicates SBP. In addition, patients with ascites admitted to the hospital for other reasons should undergo paracentesis to look for evidence of SBP.
In a word – yes!
Is this clinically significant? in another word, no!
Most non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) cause gastric damage in short-term volunteer studies, ranging from erythema to ulcers. Recent estimates suggest that gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding attributable to nonselective NSAID accounts for nearly 34% of all GI bleeding cases (mostly upper GI bleeding) in the US and may have resulted in over 32,000 hospitalisations per year during the last decade.
Introduction Calprotectin is a heterodimer of calcium-binding proteins which belongs to the S-100 protein family. It is released from neutrophils and monocytes during cellular activation (or death) at sites of active inflammation, and accounts for upto 60% of the cytosolic protein in the granules of these cells. It is a highly stable protein, resists enzymatic…
The recent Calprotectin Regional User Group meetings, organised by Alpha Laboratories, generated lively and informative discussions between new, experienced and some potential calprotectin assay users. Over 40 participants attended across the three meetings held in London, Birmingham and Manchester, travelling from as far afield as Truro and Glasgow. The majority of attendees had already set…
As the Director of the UK NEQAS programme for Faecal Markers of Inflammation, I’m often asked why we sometimes see quite large differences between the Faecal Calprotectin results obtained by users of a single kit on the same homogenised external quality assessment (EQA) specimen. As is nearly always the case with such questions, there’s a…
Faecal calprotectin testing hit the news headlines late last year following publication of the NICE diagnostic guidelines: ‘Faecal calprotectin diagnostic tests for inflammatory diseases of the bowel’ (DG11). Measurement of faecal calprotectin is considered to provide a reliable indicator of gastrointestinal (GI) tract inflammation and numerous studies show that, while faecal calprotectin concentrations are significantly…