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(1) Background: Social distancing rules have been widely introduced in the fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. So far, the effectiveness of these methods has not been assessed in the group of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. (2) Methods: The study included 473 patients with IBD who made 1180 hospital visits from 1 May to 30 September 2020. During each visit, the patients completed a five-step, progressive scale that was developed to assess the degree of social isolation. In parallel, other demographic data were collected and the concentrations of anti-severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) IgG and IgM+IgA antibodies were measured using the ELISA method. (3) Results: The study found a significant correlation between the degree of social distancing and the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the groups with the lowest degree of isolation (3 to 5). (4) Conclusions: Maintaining social distancing is an effective method for reducing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus among IBD patients.

Introduction. Transplant recipients have a significantly greater incidence of cancer, compared with the general population, who are referred to immunosuppressive therapy as an additional malignancy risk factor. Therefore, there is a need to search for an easy in clinical practice neoplasm predictor, especially for this group of patients. Materials and methods. A group of 74 (43M and 31F; aged 46.8 ± 12 years) kidney transplant recipients was investigated in a three-year follow-up study. During the time of observation, 7 patients were diagnosed with neoplasm (7.4 ± 1.5 years after transplantation). A serum level of IL2 (ELISA test) and mRNA level of IL1beta, IL10 and TNFalfa in peripheral mononuclear blood cells – PBMCs (QRT – PCR method) were measured in every year of observation. [i]Analysis of variances and t-Student test were used in groups mean comparison[/i]: N – patients developing malignant neoplasm group (24 probes); M – set of probes from patients with malignancies at the moment of diagnosis (11 probes); P – set of probes from patients before developing malignant neoplasm (10 probes); C – control group of healthy transplant recipients (31 probes). Results. Among the analyzed agents, only serum IL2 level differed between the analyzed groups, with higher values in the M compared with the P group (p

Introduction: The term "dyspepsia" comes from the Greek words "dys' and 'peptin", which maen "ill digestion" or indigestion, although this set of symptoms in the adult clinic has little to do with the digestion or absorption process, and refers more to ailments related to the upper section of the gastrointestinal tract. Aim: Assessment of the frequency of functional dyspepsia diagnosis, the characteristics of the group and an attempt to identify the accompanying symptoms, assessment of histological lesions and an attempt to answer question about the efficiency of anti-secretory and eradication therapy. Material and methods: The study involved patients reporting for gastrofiberscopic examination due to dyspeptic ailments. A total of 230 patients were examined, including 140 women and 90 men, above 18 years of age. They underwent endoscopic examination, and a selected group with functional dyspepsia (FD), analysed using the ‘Gast’ questionnaire, underwent eradication therapy or proton pump inhibitors. Statistical analysis involved χ 2 and Fischer’s test. Results: The study involved 230 individuals with dyspeptic disorders. The largest age group was 46–60 years. These patients reported due to their ailments mostly in autumn and winter. The differentiated group with FD included 53 patients (23% of the clinical population). 69.8% of the FD group was infected with Helicobacter pylori (with 81.2% of the whole population, respectively). Individuals with FD reported improvement more often after being administered drugs to decrease gastric secretion, more often declared post-elementary education and suffered from non-gastric ailments yet still described their state of health as good. No positive therapeutic effect of eradication was noticed during the 6-month observation. Conclusions: Due to the very high ratio of subjects with functional dyspepsia, also observed in the study sample, and the influence of civilization progress, we should expect increasing frequency of occurrence of this problem.

Introduction This paper concerns the analysis of the features obtained from thyroid ultrasound images in left and right transverse and longitudinal sections. In the image analysis, the thyroid lobe is treated as a texture for healthy subjects and patients with Hashimoto’s disease. The applied methods of analysis and image processing were profiled to obtain 10 features of the image. Then, their significance in the classification was shown. Material In this study, the examined group consisted of 29 healthy subjects aged 18 to 60 and 65 patients with Hashimoto's disease. For each subject, four ultrasound images were taken. They were all in transverse and longitudinal sections of the right and left lobe of the thyroid, which gave 376 images in total. Method 10 different features obtained from each ultrasound image were suggested. The analyzed thyroid lobe was marked automatically or manually with a rectangular element. Results The analysis of 10 features and the creation for each one of them their own decision tree configuration resulted in distinguishing 3 most significant features. The results of the quality of classification show accuracy above 94% for a non-trimmed decision tree.

G A A b st ra ct s may limit its utility. Aims: To evaluate the potential usefulness of electrophysiological studies, ex vivo, on rectal biopsy samples as a surrogate marker for measurement of CFTR function. These results were compared to NPD results from the same subject. Methods: Intestinal Current Measurement (ICM) and NPD were performed on healthy controls (routine colonoscopy) and CF patients (sigmoidoscopy). Median values comprising the ICM (carbachol, histamine, and forskolin responses) and NPD (basal and chloride transport responses) tests were determined. For each response, the Wilcoxon rank sum test was applied to determine the ability of each measure to distinguish between CF and healthy controls. Results: ICM measurements demonstrated a median (interquartile range) carbachol response in healthy control subjects (n=29 subjects; 40 analyzable biopsies) of 11.1 (7.9, 20.75) μA/cm2, histamine response of 8.7 (5.0, 12.9) μA/cm2, and a forskolin response of 3.9 (2.3, 7.4) μA/cm2. These responses were inverted in CF subjects (n=8, 10 analyzable biopsies) with a mean carbachol response of -2.5 (-4.8, -1.6) μA/cm2, histamine of -1.0 (-1.6, 0) μA/cm2, and no forskolin response. Each of the ICM measurements effectively distinguished between CF and controls (p < 0.0001). NPD measurements demonstrated a median basal PD response in healthy control subjects (n=7) of -12.0 mV (13.5, -8.0) and a chloride transport response of 14.0 mV (12, 20.5). In CF subjects (n=8), the median values were -49.0 mV (-51.5, -42.5) and -2.0 mV (-3.0, 0), respectively. Similar to ICM, each of the NPD measurements distinguished between healthy controls and CF (p < 0.0005). Conclusions: ICM is equivalent to NPD in the ability to distinguish CF patients from healthy controls. Rectal biopsy studies, like NPD, allow measurement of CFTR mediated chloride transport which has the potential for use as a therapeutic endpoint for studies in CF patients. This is of particular importance in evaluating young children who are less likely to tolerate NPD.