Three months' administration of the fatty acid-bile acid conjugate Aramchol is safe, tolerable, and significantly reduces liver fat content in patients with NAFLD. The reduction in liver fat content occurred in a dose-dependent manner and was associated with a trend of metabolic improvements, indicating that Aramchol might be used for the treatment of fatty liver disease. ClinicalTrials.gov number: NCT01094158.

In a comparison of duodenoscopes reprocessed by sHLD, dHLD, or HLD/ETO, we found no significant differences between groups for MDRO or bacteria contamination. Enhanced disinfection methods (dHLD or HLD/ETO) did not provide additional protection against contamination. However, insufficient events occurred to assess our primary study end-point. ClinicalTrials.gov no: NCT02611648.

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Venous thromboembolism (VTE) in cirrhotic patients is an increasingly encountered problem in the daily clinical practice; there is still a debate on the ideal measures to be followed for prophylaxis and treatment of VTE among this population. Although traditionally, liver cirrhosis has been considered a disease with hypocoagulability state and increasing bleeding tendency due to severe homeostatic disruption in liver disease, until recently there is increasing awareness and evidence that cirrhotic patients are not completely protected from thrombotic events although they have an elevated international normalized ratio and auto anticoagulation. Furthermore, hypercoagulability is now an increasingly recognized aspect of chronic liver disease (CLD), and the bleeding risk of VTE prophylaxis and treatment remains unclear. In this review, we provide an updated discussion on the mechanisms involved in hemostasis in CLD as well as on the benefits and complications of anticoagulant therapy in cirrhotic patients. Overall, sufficient evidence exists, promoting the use of anticoagulation in cirrhotic patients for both VTE prophylaxis and treatment in carefully selected patients after consideration of pharmacologic or endoscopic variceal bleeding prophylaxis.

Oral administration of anti-CD3 MAb to patients with NASH was safe and well tolerated. Positive biological effects were noted in several hepatic, metabolic and immunologic parameters. These findings provide the basis for future trials to investigate the effect of oral anti-CD3 MAb immunotherapy in patients with NASH.