We found no significant differences in therapeutic efficacies and adverse effects between the alpha-2a and -2b types of peginterferon as the initial treatment regimen in naive chronic hepatitis C patients.

Background/Aims: The multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) scanning frequently leads to the incidental discovery of bowel wall thickening. The aim of this study was to determine the utility of gastroscopy and colonoscopy in the management of patients who had incidental discovery of bowel wall thickening on MDCT. Methods: From May 2006 to March 2008, the abdominal MDCT reports of all patients in Chungbuk NationalUniversity Hospital were reviewed. Cases with any bowel thickening was selected and then patients who received gastroscopy or colonoscopy after abdominal MDCT were re-selected. Results: Gastroscopy revealed abnormal findings in 22 (95.7%) out of 23 patients, and 10 patients (43.5%) had stomach cancers. Colonoscopy revealed abnormal findings in 35 (85.4%) out of 41 patients, and 12 patients (29%) had malignant tumors. In the patients who had lymph node enlargement (p＜0.001), dirty fat infiltration (p=0.025), and irregular wall thickening (p ＜0.001) on MDCT malignancy was observed more frequently. Conclusions: We recommend gastroscopy and co-

Idiopathic adulthood ductopenia (IAD) is a chronic cholestatic liver disease of unknown etiology characterized by adult onset, an absence of autoantibodies, inflammatory bowel disease, and a loss of interlobular bile ducts. In the present report, a case fulfilling the IAD criteria is described. A 19-year-old man was admitted to the hospital for persistent elevation of transaminases and alkaline phosphatase without clinical symptoms. Viral hepatitis markers and autoantibodies were absent. The patient had a normal extrahepatic biliary tree and had no evidence of inflammatory bowel disease. A liver biopsy specimen showed absence of interlobular bile ducts from 58% of the portal tracts. He was diagnosed with IAD and was treated with ursodeoxycholic acid.

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