Biliary stricture dilatation: multicenter review of clinical management in 73 patients

Eighty-nine biliary strictures in 73 patients who had undergone percutaneous balloon dilatation were reviewed to determine long-term patency rates and clinical management problems. The majority of dilatations were performed in patients with anastomotic strictures (n = 44), iatrogenic strictures (n = 28), and strictures associated with sclerosing cholangitis (n = 17). Patency rates after 36 months or more were 67%, 76%, and 42%, respectively. Complications, mostly minor, occurred in less than 7% of patients. Of patients with significant biliary obstruction, 15% had little or no intrahepatic biliary duct dilatation demonstrated by cross-sectional imaging and/or direct cholangiography. No definite conclusions could be drawn about the utility of long-term internal/external stenting.     

Asymptomatic neonatal colonisation by Clostridium difficile

In a prospective survey of infants born in a single maternity unit, asymptomatic faecal colonisation by Clostridium difficile occurred in 31 (47%) of 66 babies who provided a faecal sample during week one of life and at age 14 and 28 days, and in 46 (30.7%) of the total of 150 babies for whom at least one faecal sample was obtained during the month of study. There was no evidence for acquisition of the organism from the mother during delivery and colonisation was unrelated to the means of delivery, infant sex, means of feeding, duration of hospital stay, or antibiotic treatment. New colonisation occurred throughout the month of the study and further evidence for environmental acquisition was obtained by the finding of a similar strain of C difficile in 7 babies from one ward together with positive environmental cultures. Colonisation was frequently transient and occasionally intermittent; most infants kept the same strain during their period of carriage. Twenty two (47.8%) babies colonised by C difficile had low titres of cytopathic faecal toxin but none had symptomatic diarrhoea or features of necrotizing enterocolitis. The in vitro toxigenic potential of 57 toxigenic isolates from 36 babies was low and 12 babies carried non-toxigenic strains. Transient colonisation by C difficile in early life is almost certainly more common than is generally recognized and the neonate provides an important reservoir of potential infection.     

Aortopulmonary window lesions: detection with chest radiography

A retrospective morphologic study of 80 cases was undertaken to determine factors affecting detectability of computed tomographically (CT) proved aortopulmonary (AP) window lesions on conventional posteroanterior (PA) and lateral chest radiographs. Criteria used for determining abnormality were: solitary lymph node enlargement over 1.5 cm or three or more 1-cm nodes and obvious large masses or vascular anomalies. CT scans and corresponding PA and lateral radiographs were analyzed for lesion detectability, size, and location. In 49% of cases there was no detectable lesion in the AP window on radiographs; a definite AP window lesion was seen in 41%, and 10% were equivocal. Major contributing factors to low detectability of AP window lesions on radiographs include size and, more important, location of the lesion. An additional 45 cases of CT-proved normal AP windows were retrospectively reviewed to determine the false-positive rate of PA and lateral radiographs in detection of AP window lesions: 43 (96%) were classified as negative, the remaining two (4%) as equivocal. Although the AP window is a small space, it is the site of many pathologic conditions; the study results indicate that CT may be an essential procedure for its evaluation.