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Beside the search of fecal occult blood, the use of colonoscopy as a screening is ubiquitously spread; but is its repetition after a certain period of time always justified? Using a Medicare database, 24,000 patients ≥ 66 years of age, undergoing a first colonoscopy with a negative result between [...]
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Colonoscopy is not a procedure associated with frequent risks of severe complications and the most frequent disadvantages are connected with the subject’s older age or with the endoscopic removal of intestinal polyps. In order to verify these associations, the data from CORI (Clinical Outcomes [...]
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A colonoscopy or a rectoscopy performed for rectal bleedings often put in evidence the presence of internal hemorrhoids, treated with electrocoagulation or infrared photocoagulation. Another option is rubber band ligation, but this procedure implies a great amount of pain, an easy bleeding and, [...]
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Video-colonoscopy through a little camera introduced into a capsule certainly represents a less invasive method than traditional colonoscopy to reveal colic lesions, so the procedure is more and more improved in order to avoid false negatives due to tool defects. A video camera has been recently [...]
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CT colonography, inappropriately defined by someone as “virtual colonoscopy”, has been, up to now, evaluated as a screening means in trials concerning above all populations with a high risk of intestinal cancer. In this European trial, 937 subjects with a high risk for tumours (family history for [...]
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It is not clear yet what is the ideal follow-up in those patients in whom a screening colonoscopy has identified the presence of adenomatous polyps, also because the following control is often depending on the polyp’s characteristics. In order to assess whether results can depend on the various [...]
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In some trials, the diagnostic accuracy of CT colonography has been compared with traditional colonoscopy for the diagnosis of colon cancers. Now, a trial performed at the University of Wisconsin has compared two groups: 3120 subjects underwent colon CT and, in case of detection of at least 6-mm [...]
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Polyethylene glycol has occasional constipation in its indications, but it is usually used also for long periods. In this randomized trial, researchers have compared it with tegaserod, whose use was recently restricted because of its cardiovascular effects on young women. The trial was sponsored by [...]
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Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is an osmotic laxative used in the short-term treatment of constipation. A multicentric trial was performed, sponsored by pharmaceutical industry, in which PEG was evaluated in the long-term treatment of constipation. 304 patients were evaluated, affected by chronic [...]
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Among the so many substances used for intestinal cancer prevention, some trials on animals have indicated the favourable effect of folic acid administration. Through an international multicentric trial the possibility was studied that folic acid can prevent the relapse of colorectal adenomas in [...]