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Because of the devastating health effect of chronic burned tobacco inhalation, smoking cessation is a public health priority. After a short review of the validated pharmacological tools for smoking cessation we have analysed the clinical data obtained with the increasingly popular e-cigarette as an aid to help current smokers to quit. Although e-cigarette has not proved its effectiveness in smoking cessation yet, the public health authorities have usually adopted a pragmatic position. They recommend trying e-cigarette when validated pharmacological tools have failed in making patients abstinent, on the basis that e-cigarette is strongly assumed to be less toxic and may still help reducing the amount of smoked cigarettes.Compte tenu des effets dévastateurs du tabagisme chronique sur la santé, le sevrage tabagique est un objectif prioritaire de santé publique. Après un bref rappel sur les méthodes validées d’aide au sevrage, nous abordons les données cliniques obtenues avec la cigarette électronique, dont l’utilisation chez nous devient de plus en plus populaire. Au vu de la littérature actuelle, il semble bien que si la cigarette électronique n’a pas encore démontré de façon univoque son efficacité dans l’aide au sevrage complet, néanmoins, les autorités officielles de santé ont généralement adopté une position compréhensive et pragmatique à son égard, au vu de son potentiel à réduire la consommation de cigarette classique chez les patients ayant échoué avec les aides au sevrage validées.

WHO, for the first time in its history, asked in 2003, all Member States to sign and enforce a Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Ten years later, it seems important to describe the achievements made in Belgium. The main legislative measures that are taken to control the major avoidable risk factor for health, are recalled. The present status of Belgium activity in this field is described, with an emphasis on the role of health professionals to help smokers quit. The difficult challenge of curing chronic tobacco dependence disease is underlined. Regarding the fight to render tobacco products less attractive, some breakthroughs are occurring in specific countries, and some are maybe coming soon in Europe.

This review deals with the pharmacological and psychological means to help in smoking cessation and compares the efficacy of the different methods. Pharmacological support results in a smoking cessation rate reaching at best 20-25%. The efficacy of behavioural and cognitive therapy have been much less validated so far. Multidisciplinary specialized centres for helping smokers have been raised under the care of FARES in the French Community of Belgium.

Today the smoker carries a risk of mortality 70% higher compared to the nonsmoker. In Belgium active smoking is indisputably the most important cause of avoidable death. In 2004 it appears that 27% of the belgian population was smoking. This review describes the comorbidity associated with active tobacco consumption and defines the concepts of dependence and smoking cessation. It also identifies the three factors which determine the success of smoking cessation, i.e. the degree of nicotinic dependence, the presence of anxio-depressive disorders and the importance of the motivation to the stop.

The hyperventilation syndrome (HVS), characterised by multiple somatic symptoms induced by inappropriate hyperventilation, constitutes the physiopathological manifestation of a common disorder in general medicine. As a synonym of spasmophilia or tetany, it has the advantage of offering diagnostic criteria, even though the latter are still vaguely defined. But its definition allows for objective measurements: indeed, a decrease in PCO2 during a hyperventilation provoking test and an abnormally low PCO2 rate at rest can be easily quantified. Moreover, the HVS concept offers a treatment which is both structured (respiratory reeducation, psychotherapy and pharmacology) and efficient. Yet, a number of scientific uncertainties still exist. There is no general agreement regarding the criteria which should be taken into account in a hyperventilation provoking test in order to diagnose an hyperventilation syndrome; the specificity of such a test is weak and a placebo can induce as many symptoms as can a HVS. Respiratory reeducation has good results but does not necessarily have an effect on PCO2. Some therapists see in it no more than a mechanism of relaxation and a rational explanation of frightening symptoms. This has led some authors to reject the term "hyperventilation syndrome" and to prefer the expression "chronic hyperventilation of unknown origin".

From March to October 1989, 237 French gastroenterologists included 1,301 patients referred for irritable bowel syndrome in a 9-month epidemiological survey based on questionnaires and monthly auto-evaluation. In the patient population, the high preponderance of women (sex ratio: 2.33), the high prevalence of cholecystectomy (9%), appendectomy (53%) and an association with at least one symptom of non-ulcer dyspepsia (70%) were observed. Fifty per cent of the patients completed the 9-month follow-up period; among them, 60% declared an improvement in their symptoms, but only 30% in their quality of life and independently of the clinical course. This study suggests that symptoms and quality of life in patients consulting for irritable bowel syndrome should be taken into account separately, both in daily practice and in therapeutic evaluation.

There are three main groups of indications of lower digestive tract endoscopy: (1) endoscopy may be performed to detect adenomatous polyps and thus prevent colorectal cancer by systematic excision of these polyps before they become invasive malignancies; (2) it may also be performed in patients whose symptoms (e.g. pain, diarrhoea or anaemia) may be due to a lesion of the colon. It usually provides evidence of such diseases as colorectal adenocarcinoma, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, pseudomembranous colitis, post-irradiation colitis, collagen colitis, ischaemic colitis or colonic angiodysplasia; (3) finally, emergency endoscopy can be used in case of rectal haemorrhage, where it is often completed by haemostasis, or in case of volvulus, where it removes the occlusion.

This study was performed to evaluate the risk of gallstone formation during long-term treatment with the long-acting somatostatin analog octreotide (SMS 201-995). Twelve patients (8 men, 4 women--mean age 43 years) treated with continuous subcutaneous octreotide infusion for acromegaly (mean duration 26.5 months, mean dose 541 micrograms/day) were included. Bile collection by duodenal intubation was performed before, during, and 45 days after octreotide treatment in 3, 12, and 8 patients, respectively. Abdominal ultrasonography and/or oral cholecystrography were also performed before (n = 9 patients), during (n = 12), and after treatment (n = 10). Bile examination was normal in the 3 patients controlled before treatment but showed that 58.3 percent of the treated patients had cholesterol monohydrate crystals. After discontinuation of octreotide only 25 percent of patients had cholesterol crystals. In 3 patients (25 percent) treated longer than 6 months, cholesterol crystals occurred prior to the occurrence of small radiolucent gallstones: one patient underwent cholecystectomy because of biliary colic, while in the two others, complete dissolution of stones was obtained after 10 months of treatment with ursodeoxycholic acid given in association with octreotide. None of the 9 other acromegalic patients (including 7 treated more than 20 months) developed stones. Cholesterol gallstone formation seems to be increased in acromegalic patients during long-term octreotide treatment but the exact incidence remains to be determined in larger series of patients.

The importance of colonic motor disorders during the irritable bowel syndrome is recognized, but, paradoxically, their description has yet to be perfected. Among the fundamental questions that remain unanswered, three are of prime importance: a) are there one or more specific disturbances in basal colonic motility? b) can specific motor disorders be induced by certain situations, for instance, during stress? c) is there any real relationship between clinical symptoms and coexisting motor disorders? The answers to these questions are full of ambiguities; this may be explained by the difficulty with which methods of investigation are performed as well as the heterogeneous character of the disorders. Presently, recording colonic myoelectric activity over a 24 hour period or more might prove to be useful in increasing our knowledge on motor disorders. It is not at all certain that a specific basal abnormality exists and the results of the effects of stress vary according to the methods used. Segmental hyperactivity in painful constipation, abnormal colonic response to alimentation in the case of painful bloating, and propulsive hyperactivity with absence or decrease in the "sigmoid brake" during painless diarrhea have been noted on basal motor activity recordings during sleep and after meals. Myoelectric disorders, however, are seen in only two-thirds of patients with intestinal functional disorders. "Sensitivity", personality, or other disorders, and particularly, intestinal disorders, can contribute to explain the pathophysiology of "irritable bowels" in which the role of colonic disorders has yet to be shown.

Fifty-two non-surgical patients presenting rectal carcinoma were treated initially with palliative laser Nd-YAG. Their mean age was 79 years (49-92). Thirty patients had a severe diarrheic syndrome, associated with tenesmus in 27 cases; 20 patients had repeated hematochezia (5 presenting diarrhea as well); 6 had obstructive signs and one was symptom-free. Thirty lesions were less than 6 cm in size, 12 were between 7 and 10 cm and 10 were greater than 10 cm. Twenty-two lesions were circumferential. During the study period, 444 laser sessions were performed (mean 8.5/patient). Bleeding was stopped in all cases during the first session. Improvement of the diarrheic syndrome, obtained in 24 of the 30 patients, was correlated with the reduction of tumor volume. Tenesmus disappeared after 1 or 2 sessions, regardless of whether the tumor was destroyed or not. Failure was observed in 6 patients with lesions larger than 10 cm. Colostomy was avoided in 4 of the 6 obstructed patients. Negative biopsies were repeatedly obtained after mucosal repair in 9 patients with small lesions (less than 6 cm). Mean follow-up is now 8.2 months for the patients still alive. Complications were: 2 cicatricial stenosis and 3 hemorrhages (one required blood transfusion). Laser Nd-YAG allows palliative but conservative and effective treatment for rectal cancers. Although complete destruction is possible for small lesions, indications with curative intent are currently limited to patients with major contraindications to surgery.

The purpose of this randomized study was to compare the effects of two methods of hemostasis--photocoagulation using YAG Neodyme laser and liquid monopolar electrocoagulation--on acute experimental bleeding ulcers created in the dog stomach with an ulcer-maker. One hundred and fifty-three lesions were made and randomized into 3 groups; 51 lesions were treated with photocoagulation and complete hemostasis was achieved in all cases. Hemostasis was obtained in 80 p. 100 of 51 ulcers treated with liquid electrocoagulation. Control untreated ulcers remained hemorrhagic after 45 min of observation. The mean external muscle injury on day 7 was 55 p. 100 after photocoagulation and 65 p. 100 after liquid electrocoagulation. On day 14, mean external injury was 60 p. 100 after photocoagulation and 75 p. 100 after liquid electrocoagulation (non-significant difference). On day 7, the mean re-epithelization index, expressed as the percentage of the original ulcer diameter, ranged from 8 to 10 p. 100 in each trial group. On day 14, reepithelization covered 78 p. 100 of control ulcers and 72 p. 100 of photocoagulated ulcers (NS). This percentage falls to 47 p. 100 in ulcers treated with liquid electrocoagulation (p less than 0.01 when compared with ulcers treated with photocoagulation). Photocoagulation seemed to be more efficient in ensuring hemostasis and external muscle injury was correlated with the energy delivered. External muscle injury could not be controlled by liquid electrocoagulation. However the difference in the percentages of mean external muscle injury between the two methods was not significant. Therefore, in man, the risk of perforation is certainly slight and not very different whatever the method of hemostasis considered.

This multicentric, double-blind and prospective study, which involved 41 French Gastroenterology Units, was designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of famotidine, 40 mg at bedtime, compared to single dose ranitidine, 300 mg, in promoting the healing of duodenal ulcer. Two hundred and ninety-six patients with endoscopically proven duodenal ulcer were randomly allocated to 2 treatment groups: 148 were treated with famotidine, and 148 with ranitidine. Patients were treated during 4 weeks and then controlled by endoscopy. Unhealed patients at 4 weeks were treated again by the same drug for 2 weeks and then endoscopically controlled. One hundred and nine patients were evaluable in the famotidine group and 111 in the ranitidine group. Groups were well-matched for age, sex, alcohol and smoking habits, and duration of ulcer disease. At 4 weeks of treatment, 86 of the 109 patients treated with famotidine had healed (79 percent) and 74 of the 111 patients treated with ranitidine healed (67 percent). At 6 weeks of treatment, 104 patients had healed in the famotidine group (95 percent) and 101 in the ranitidine group (91 percent). Results were significantly different between the 2 groups at 4 weeks of treatment only (p = 0.039). Among smoking patients, no statistical difference was observed between the 2 groups at 4 and 6 weeks of treatment. By contrast, in non smoking patients, famotidine appeared more effective (83 percent healed) than ranitidine (67 percent) (p = 0.014) at 4 weeks. Both treatments were well tolerated and severe adverse effects were scarcely observed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis is usually established by clinical history and morphological criteria based on radiological and/or endoscopic (ERCP) findings. When these morphological signs are absent or equivocal, pancreatic function testing is necessary. Direct testing by duodenal intubation with hormonal stimulation is still considered as the reference method ("gold standard"). Numerous indirect tests have been introduced to replace the duodenal intubation which is rarely well accepted and difficult to repeat. Moreover this technique is only available in highly specialized centres. Among the tubeless tests, the Paba test and the pancreolauryl test are gaining interest. Several modifications of these tests have improved their sensitivity and specificity. In most instances, these tests are unable to detect mild pancreatic insufficiency. However their reproducibility in individual cases could be useful for the follow-up of patients with proven pancreatic insufficiency, particularly with regard to the efficacy and the compliance of replacement therapy.