BackgroundAlthough evidence suggests frequent gastrointestinal (GI) involvement during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), endoscopic findings are scarcely reported.AimsWe aimed at registering endoscopic abnormalities and potentially associated risk factors among patients with COVID-19.MethodsAll consecutive patients with COVID-19 undergoing endoscopy in 16 institutions from high-prevalence regions were enrolled. Mann-Whitney U, χ2 or Fisher’s exact test were used to compare patients with major abnormalities to those with negative procedures, and multivariate logistic regression to identify independent predictors.ResultsBetween February and May 2020, during the first pandemic outbreak with severely restricted endoscopy activity, 114 endoscopies on 106 patients with COVID-19 were performed in 16 institutions (men=70.8%, median age=68 (58–74); 33% admitted in intensive care unit; 44.4% reporting GI symptoms). 66.7% endoscopies were urgent, mainly for overt GI bleeding. 52 (45.6%) patients had major abnormalities, whereas 13 bled from previous conditions. The most prevalent upper GI abnormalities were ulcers (25.3%), erosive/ulcerative gastro-duodenopathy (16.1%) and petechial/haemorrhagic gastropathy (9.2%). Among lower GI endoscopies, 33.3% showed an ischaemic-like colitis.Receiver operating curve analysis identified D-dimers >1850 ng/mL as predicting major abnormalities. Only D-dimers >1850 ng/mL (OR=12.12 (1.69–86.87)) and presence of GI symptoms (OR=6.17 (1.13–33.67)) were independently associated with major abnormalities at multivariate analysis.ConclusionIn this highly selected cohort of hospitalised patients with COVID-19 requiring endoscopy, almost half showed acute mucosal injuries and more than one-third of lower GI endoscopies had features of ischaemic colitis. Among the hospitalisation-related and patient-related variables evaluated in this study, D-dimers above 1850 ng/mL was the most useful at predicting major mucosal abnormalities at endoscopy.Trial registration numberClinicalTrial.gov (ID: NCT04318366).

Measurements of serum concentrations of therapeutic antibodies and anti-drug antibodies (ADA) can support clinical decisions for the management of non-responders, optimizing the therapy. In the present study we compared the results obtained by classical ELISA and a recently proposed surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based immunoassay, in 76 patients receiving infliximab for inflammatory bowel diseases. The two methods indicated very similar serum concentrations of the drug, but there were striking differences as regards ADA. All the sera showing ADA by ELISA (14) also showed ADA by SPR, but the absolute amounts were different, being 7–490 times higher with SPR, with no correlation. Eight patients showed ADA only with SPR, and these ADA had significantly faster dissociation rate constants than those detectable by both SPR and ELISA. The underestimation, or the lack of detection, of ADA by ELISA is likely to reflect the long incubation steps which favor dissociation of the patient’s low-affinity ADA, while the commercial, high-affinity anti-infliximab antibodies used for the calibration curve do not dissociate. This problem is less important with SPR, which monitors binding in real time. The possibility offered by SPR to detect ADA in patients otherwise considered ADA-negative by ELISA could have important implications for clinicians.

Background and Study Aim:The traditional endoscopic therapy of anastomotic strictures (AS) after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) is multiple ERCPs with the insertion of an increasing number of plastic stents side-by-side. Fully covered selfexpanding metal stents (cSEMS) could be a valuable option to decrease the number of procedures needed or non-responders to plastic stents. This study aims to retrospectively analyse the results of AS endoscopic treatment by cSEMS and to identify any factors associated with its success.Patients and Methods: Ninety-one patients (mean age 55.9 ± 7.6 SD; 73 males) from nine Italian transplantation centres, had a cSEMS positioned for post-OLT-AS between 2007 and 2017. Forty-nine (54%) patients were treated with cSEMS as a second-line treatment.Results: All the procedures were successfully performed without immediate complications. After ERCP, adverse events occurred in 11% of cases (2 moderate pancreatitis and 8 cholangitis). In 49 patients (54%), cSEMSs migrated. After cSEMS removal, 46 patients (51%) needed further endoscopic (45 patients) or radiological (1 patient) treatments to solve the AS. Lastly, seven patients underwent surgery. Multivariable stepwise logistic regression showed that cSEMS migration was the only factor associated Handling editor: Luca Valenti

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