Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cause of cancer-related death in Europe. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the efficiency of the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), the platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and the mean platelet volume (MPV) as tools for the preoperative diagnosis of CRC and their usefulness in the follow-up of CRC. A total of 144 CRC patients, as diagnosed by colonoscopy, and 143 age-matched and sex-matched healthy participants were included in the study. Medical records were used to compare preoperative and postoperative data including hemoglobin levels, platelet counts, MPV, NLR, and PLR. NLR, PLR, and MPV were significantly higher in CRC patients preoperatively, compared with healthy participants. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis suggested 2.02 as the cutoff value for NLR [area under the curve (AUC): 0.921, sensitivity: 86%, specificity: 84%], 135 as the cutoff value for PLR, (AUC: 0.853, sensitivity: 70%, specificity: 90%) and 8.25 fl as the cutoff value for MPV (AUC: 0.717, sensitivity: 54%, specificity: 76%). Subgroup analysis showed that NLR, PLR, and MPV levels were also significantly higher in nonanemic CRC patients compared with the control group, which is of great theoretical and clinical value for the early detection of CRC. Surgical tumor resection resulted in a significant decrease in NLR, PLR, and MPV. Our results suggest that NLR, PLR, and MPV may be used as easily available additional biomarkers for CRC in screening the general population, as well as in postoperative follow-up.

Gastric cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer and the second cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The early diagnosis of gastric cancer is fundamental in decreasing the mortality rates. It has been shown that MPV level is a sign of inflammation in hepatocellular carcinoma and pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The aim of this study is to examine whether MPV would be a useful inflammatory marker for differentiating gastric cancer patients from healthy controls. Thirty-one gastric cancer patients and 31 age-sexes matched healthy subjects included into the study. Patients with hypertension, hematological and renal disease, heart failure, chronic infection, hepatic disorder and other cancer were excluded from the study. MPV level was significantly higher in pre-operative gastric cancer patients compared to healthy subjects (8.31 fL vs. 7.85; p: 0.007). ROC analysis suggested 8.25 fL as the cut-off value for MPV (AUC: 0.717, sensitivity: 61%, specificity: 81%). Surgical tumor resection resulted in a significant decrease in MPV level (8.31 fL vs. 7.55 fL; p: 0.001). No significant difference was found in MPV level between the post-operative group and control subjects. We did not find statistically significant difference between MPV and TNM stages. In conclusion, changes in MPV values may be used as an easily available biomarker for monitoring the healthy patients for GC risk and may prompt physicians to make an early diagnosis of GC.

Background Crohn’s disease (CD) is characterised by chronic gastrointestinal inflammation with relapsing–remitting behaviour and often requires endoscopic and/or radiologic assessment. Objective The objective of this study was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of intestinal ultrasound (IUS) and magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) for the assessment of disease activity in CD using a simple endoscopic score for CD as a reference standard. Patients and methods A prospective observational study was carried out in 71 consecutive adult patients with known CD, attending our tertiary inflammatory bowel disease clinic, between November 2014 and July 2016. Ileocolonoscopy, IUS and MRE were performed within 1 month prospectively. The simple endoscopic score-CD 0–2 was accepted as remission. Results The sensitivity of IUS and MRE for detecting endoscopic activity was found similar with regard to bowel wall thickening and mesenteric fibrofatty proliferation (P>0.05). The overall accuracy for detecting mural lesions was similar between IUS and MRE. When mural lesions were analysed, the sensitivity of MRE in detecting the loss of wall stratification and stenosis was significantly higher than IUS (P<0.001 for both). IUS showed higher specificity for bowel wall thickening, loss of wall stratification and stenosis (P=0.009, P<0.001 and P<0.001, respectively). Sensitivity and accuracy of IUS were higher in detecting ascites in active disease (P=0.002). Discussion Our results showed that IUS and MRE were equally accurate in detecting endoscopic activity. IUS may be the preferred technique for the evaluation of disease activity and for the follow-up of CD.

Pantoprazole is a proton pump inhibitor that is commonly used in the treatment of peptic ulcer disease (PUD) and metabolized by cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes CYP2C19 and CYP3A4. Pantoprazole is a substrate for multi-drug resistance protein 1 (MDR1). Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in CYP2C19, CYP3A4 and MDR1 affect enzyme activity or gene expression of proteins and may alter plasma pantoprazole concentrations and treatment success in PUD. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between genetic polymorphisms in CYP2C19, CYP3A4 and MDR1 and pharmacokinetics of pantoprazole and therapeutic outcome in patients with either Helicobacter pylori-associated [H.P.(+)]-PUD or [H.P.(+)]-gastritis. The plasma pantoprazole concentrations were determined by using an HPLC method at the third hour after a 40-mg tablet of pantoprazole administration in 194 newly diagnosed patients with either [H.P.(+)]-PUD or [H.P.(+)]-gastritis. Genotyping was performed by using PCR-RFLP and DNA sequencing. Among patients appearing for follow-up examination (n = 105), the eradication rate for H. pylori was 82.8% (n = 87). The median pantoprazole plasma concentrations in poor metabolizers (PM), rapid metabolizers (RM) and ultrarapid metabolizers (URM) were 2.07, 1.69 and 1.28 μg/ml, respectively (p = 0.04). CYP3A4*1G and *22 polymorphisms did not affect plasma pantoprazole concentrations and H. pylori eradication rate. The MDR1 genetic polymorphisms did not affect plasma pantoprazole concentrations. MDR1 3435CC-2677GG-1236CC haplotype carriers had lower H. pylori eradication rate (60%) than the remaining subjects (84.9%) while the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.07). In conclusion, while CYP2C19 genetic polymorphisms significantly affected plasma pantoprazole concentrations, polymorphisms of CYP2C19, CYP3A4 and MDR1 did not affect H. pylori eradication rates.

Increased levels of serum and ascitic fluid CRP were associated with malignant ascites.