Background: In Italy, the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has stressed the entire healthcare system and required a huge re-organization of many Divisions, including those of Gastroenterology. Aims: to assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Gastroenterology Divisions across Italy. Methods: All members of the Italian Society of Gastroenterology (SIGE) were invited to answer a webbased survey. Results: Data of 121 hospitals from all 20 Italian regions were analyzed. Overall, 10.7% Gastroenterology Divisions have been converted to Covid Units. Outpatients consultations, endoscopic and ultrasound procedures were limited to urgencies and oncology indications in 85.1%, 96.2% and 72.2% of Units, respectively, and 46.7% of them suspended the screening for colorectal cancer.Moreover, 72.2% of the staff received a training for use of personal protective equipment, although 45.5% did not have sufficient devices for adequate replacement. Overall, 132 healthcare workers in 41 Gastroenterology Divisions were found to be infected. Conclusion: This is the first study to evaluate, at a country level, the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on Gastroenterology Divisions. Substantial changes of practice and reduction of procedures have been recorded in the entire country. The long-term impact of such modifications is difficult to estimate but potentially very risky for many digestive diseases.

Background The differential diagnosis between benign and malignant lymph nodes (LNs) is crucial for patient management and clinical outcome. The use of contrast-enhanced endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) has been evaluated in several studies with diverse results. The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the pooled diagnostic accuracy of contrast-enhanced EUS (CE-EUS) and contrast-enhanced harmonic EUS (CH-EUS) in this setting. Methods A systematic electronic search was performed, including all original papers dealing with assessment of the nature of the LNs using CE-EUS or CH-EUS. A meta-analysis was performed to obtain pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratio, and diagnostic odds ratio. The Summary Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Curve method was used to calculate the area under the curve. Statistical analysis was carried out using Meta-Disc V.1.4, Stata V.12.0 and Review Manager V.5.2. Results Among 210 pertinent studies, four (336 patients) were included in the analysis. The pooled sensitivity was 82.1 % (75.1 – 87.7 %) and pooled specificity was 90.7 % (85.9 – 94.3 %) with significant heterogeneity found in sensitivity; the positive-likelihood ratio (LR) was 7.77 (5.09 – 11.85) and the negative-LR was 0.15 (0.05 – 0.46); the pooled diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) was 54 (15 – 190). Subgroup analysis including studies performed using CH-EUS (two studies, 177 LNs) showed a pooled sensitivity of 87.7 % (77.0 – 93.9 %) and a pooled specificity of 91.8 % (84.5 % – 96.4 %) with no significant heterogeneity; the pooled positive-LR was 9.51 (4.95 – 18.28) and the pooled negative-LR was 0.14 (0.06 – 0.35); pooled DOR was 68.42 (15.5 – 301.4). Conclusions From these data, CE-EUS is not recommended due to inadequate sensitivity. On the other hand, CH-EUS studies showed optimal accuracy (pooled sensitivity 87.7 % and specificity 91.8 %), comparable to elastography and even EUS-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA), suggesting a role in the diagnostic algorithm.

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Background & Aims We tested the putative association of the rs58542926 variant of TM6SF2, a recently described genetic determinant of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, with steatosis and fibrosis in genotype 1(G1) chronic hepatitis C(CHC) patients. Methods A total of 694 consecutively biopsied Caucasian G1 CHC patients were genotyped for TM6SF2 rs58542926, IL28B rs12979860 and PNPLA3 rs738409. Steatosis was classified as absent (<5%), mild‐moderate(5–29%) and severe(≥30%), Fibrosis was considered severe if=F3‐F4. Results Carriers of TM6SF2 rs58542926 (6.3% of patients) exhibited lower serum levels of cholesterol (P = 0.04) and triglycerides (P = 0.01), but a similar distribution of steatosis severity (P = 0.63), compared to noncarriers. Prevalence and severity of steatosis were reduced in IL28B C allele carriers (P = 0.005) and elevated in PNPLA3 G allele carriers (P < 0.001). After adjustment for age, gender, body mass index and homoeostasis model assessment score, steatosis severity was independently associated with IL28B rs12979860 (odds ratio [OR] 0.69, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.55–0.86, P = 0.001) and PNPLA3 rs738409 (OR 1.84, 95% CI 1.46–2.83, P < 0.001), but not TM6SF2 rs58542926 (OR 1.48, 95% CI 0.82–2.69, P = 0.19). Variants of TM6SF2 (30.9% vs. 25%, P = 0.40), IL28B and PNPLA3 were not directly associated with fibrosis severity, although variants of IL28B and PNPLA3 promoted steatosis (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.06–1.75, P = 0.01) that in turn is associated with severe fibrosis. Conclusions In G1 CHC patients, TM6SF2 rs58542926 does not affect the histological severity of liver damage. However, IL28B rs12979860 and PNPLA3 rs738409 modify steatosis.

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