Elderly people commonly present with biliary tract disease. Gallstone disease is an important cause of recurrent abdominal symptoms, and we advocate an aggressive approach in stable patients not at risk to improve the quality of their lives. Choledocholithiasis is optimally treated by ERCP (98% success) even in patients who are at great risk. Endoscopic intervention often obviates the need for ...

Japan and Thailand have high incidences of bile duct carcinoma and gallstones. The presence of Helicobacter bilis (H. bilis) detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and 16S rRNA analysis in bile samples from Chileans with chronic cholecystitis was reported. The association between H. bilis in bile and biliary tract malignancies has not been investigated, and therefore the aim of this study ...

Sonic hedgehog (SHh) signaling is essential for normal development of the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract and is reported to be aberrantly activated in GI cancers. However, the association between SHh signaling and extrahepatic biliary tract cancer is not clearly understood. In this study, we evaluated the activities of SHh family proteins and t...

a 43-year-old man with liver cirrhosis received transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (tips) for the treatment of recurrent variceal bleeding and f3 esophageal varices. during routine follow up liver ultrasound examination, six months after the implantation, tips occlusion was suspected and tips revision was performed. during the revision, moderate to severe stenosis at the hepatic veno...

Chemotherapy is indispensable for the treatment of advanced biliary tract cancer. Recently, reports regarding first-line chemotherapy have increased, and first-line chemotherapy treatment has become gradually more sophisticated. Gemcitabine and cisplatin combination therapy (or gemcitabine and oxaliplatin combination therapy) have become the standard of care for advanced biliary tract cancer. O...

BACKGROUND In 2013, an unusually high incidence of biliary tract cancer among current or former workers of the offset color proof printing department of a printing company in Osaka, Japan, was reported. The purpose of this study was to examine whether distance from the printing factory was associated with incidence of biliary tract cancer and whether incident biliary tract cancer cases clustere...

The complex architecture of the liver biliary network represents a structural prerequisite for the formation and secretion of bile as well as excretion of toxic substances through bile ducts. Disorders of the biliary tract affect a significant portion of the worldwide population, often leading to cholestatic liver diseases. Cholestatic liver disease is a condition that results from an impairmen...

Cholangiocytes constitute the biliary epithelium, an important barrier to infection entering the liver via the gastrointestinal tract. These cells have developed mechanisms to respond to infection by recruiting and interacting with effector leukocytes to clear bacterial or viral pathogens. Cholangiocytes are also targets of immune mediated damage in several liver diseases and under these circum...

BACKGROUND Acute biliary diseases during pregnancy have been classically managed conservatively. Advances in minimally invasive surgery and the high recurrence rate of symptoms observed changed this management. METHODS This is a prospective observational study. Initial management was medical. Unresponsive patients were treated with minimally invasive techniques including gallbladder percutane...