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The aim of the study was to determine the frequency of amyloidosis detected by gastroduodenal biopsy in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, and to investigate correlations between the results of gastroduodenal biopsy and abdominal fat and renal biopsies. A total of consecutive 1006 RA patients underwent gastroduodenal biopsy. The 71 patients who tested positive for gastrointestinal (GI) amyloidosis were asked to undergo renal and abdominal fat biopsies, and 21 did so. Renal biopsies were also performed on 12 patients with no amyloidosis but indicators of drug-induced renal damage, and abdominal fat biopsies were performed on 50 RA patients with no indication of amyloidosis. The prevalence of GI amyloidosis was 7.1%. Urinary abnormalities and GI symptoms were common in GI amyloidisis, and inflammatory markers were elevated. Sixty-one (86%) had either depressed creatinine clearance or urinary symptoms. Nineteen of the 21 patients (91%) with GI amyloidosis who underwent renal biopsies also had renal amyloid deposits. Eleven of the 21 (52%) had amyloidosis on abdominal fat biopsy. None of the 12 patients without GI amyloidosis had renal amyloidosis on renal biopsy, and none of the 50 patients without GI amyloidosis had amyloidosis on abdominal fat biopsy. Gastroduodenal biopsy reveals a high prevalence of amyloidosis in RA patients. Amyloidosis is often associated with signs of renal impairment. Results of GI biopsy are highly correlated with those of renal biopsy, but the results of fat biopsy are not. We recommend GI biopsy for RA patients for the screening of systemic amyloidosis.

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Severe diarrhea improved dramatically with administration of the humanized anti-interleukin-6 receptor antibody tocilizumab (TCZ) in a patient with secondary reactive amyloidosis, which was associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A 53-year-old woman with RA went into hypovolemic shock because of severe watery diarrhea associated with gastrointestinal amyloidosis. The high-dose prednisolone therapy and glucocorticoid pulse therapy did not improve her intractable diarrhea. After TCZ administration, the life-threatening diarrhea lessened in about 6 h, and her vital signs became stable the next day. Perforation of the small intestine, however, occurred 2 days after TCZ administration. Whether TCZ could have been involved in the perforation in such a short time is unknown. Surgery was successful, and the patient recovered. TCZ may work immediately in diarrhea associated with secondary amyloidosis.

AIMTo evaluate clinicopathological features and surgical outcomes of gastric cancer in elderly and non-elderly patients after inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) method using propensity score.METHODSWe enrolled a total of 448 patients with histologically confirmed primary gastric carcinoma who received gastrectomies. Of these, 115 patients were aged > 80 years old (Group A), and 333 patients were aged < 79 years old (Group B). We compared the surgical outcomes and survival of the two groups after IPTW.RESULTSPostoperative complications, especially respiratory complications and hospital deaths, were significantly more common in Group A than in Group B (P < 0.05). Overall survival (OS) was significantly lower in Group A patients than in Group B patients. Among the subset of patients who had pathological Stage I disease, OS was significantly lower in Group A (P < 0.05) than Group B, whereas cause-specific survival was almost equal in the two groups. In multivariate analysis, pathological stage, histology, and extent of lymph node dissection were independent prognostic values for OS.CONCLUSIONWhen the gastrectomy was performed in gastric cancer patients, we should recognized high mortality and comorbidities in that of elderly. More extensive lymph node dissection might improve prognoses of elderly gastric cancer patients.