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Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate possible protective effects of St. John's wort in the hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury. Material and Methods: The hepatic artery, portal vein, and bile duct were all clamped for 45 minutes to induce ischemia in rats, and after that reperfusion for 1 hour. SJW was administrated orally, once a day for 3 days before ischemia/reperfusion. The aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, tumor necrosis factor, and interleukin levels were measured in the serum samples. Luminol chemiluminescence, lucigenin luminol chemiluminescence levels; myeloperoxidase. The sodium-potassium ATPase (Na+/K+ ATPase) activity was determined in the liver tissue, and caspase-3 and caspase-9 activity with the bcl-2/bax ratio were measured by the western blot analysis. Results: The St. John's wort administration recovered the aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, tumor necrosis factor, and IL-1ß levels serum parameters meaningfully, while ischemia/reperfusion caused an increase in luminol chemiluminescence, lucigenin luminol chemiluminescence, myeloperoxidase, caspase-3, and caspase-9 activity and led to a decrease in the B-cell lymphoma-2/bcl-2-associated X protein (bcl-2/bax) ratio and the Na+/K+ ATPase activity. Conclusion: The obtained results indicate protective effects of St. John's wort on the ischemia/reperfusion injury through various mechanisms, and we are able to suggest that St. John's wort can clinically create a new therapeutic principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Objective: The purpose of this article is to examine the correlation between information obtained from patients before endoscopy and histopathological findings. Material and Methods: One thousand, five hundred and thirty-six patients underwent upper GI endoscopy between January 2011-September 2012, without distinction of age and sex were included in the study. Patients with alarm symptoms, dyspepsia, epigastric pain, gastroesophageal reflux were recorded. Tissue samples taken for histopathological examination and H. pylori screening were evaluated by Giemsa stain. The information given by the patients and histopathological findings were comparatively evaluated. Results: Six hundred and twenty-four patients (40.6%) were male and 912 (59.4%) were female. Mean age was 45 years (18-90). H. pylori was positive in 416 patients with dyspepsia (58.8%), 172 patients with epigastric pain (54.4%), 52 patients with GER symptoms (28.3%) and 128 patients with alarm symptoms (50.8%). Four patients with dyspepsia (0.6%) and 20 patients with alarm symptoms (7.9%) were diagnosed with stomach cancer. Conclusion: The main factor should be considered as the presence of at least one of the alarm symptoms when planning an upper GI endoscopy in a patient. In the presence of at least one of the alarm symptoms, an upper GI endoscopy should be performed regardless of age. Under the age of 50 and for patients without alarm symptoms, medical treatment can be tried before performing upper GI endoscopy. Patients with GER symptoms but not diagnosed as reflux esophagitis, should be treated long-term even when symptoms decline with initial treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]