Scientific Program

Conference Series Ltd invites all the participants across the globe to attend 18th World Gastroenterologists Summit Auckland, New Zealand.

Day 2 :

Conference Series Gastroenterologists 2018 International Conference Keynote Speaker Amr Aboelfetouh photo
Biography:

Amr Aboelfetouh, MD.Head of GIT center & liver investigation center at Alexandria Fever Hospital

 

Abstract:

Background:Estimates the different etiological varieties of hepatitis, helps to set priorities when deciding policies of investigations and management.

Objective:To estimate prevalence ofinfective and non-infective causes of hepatitis with or withoutjaundice inAlexandria Fever Hospital AFH.

Methods:A hospital-based cross sectional study was conducted atAFH, a tertiary hospital in Alexandria governorate.TheLiver Investigations unit (LIU), was responsible for setting the protocol of investigations and management.

Results:The most common causes were autoimmune hepatitis (25.2%) followed by cryptogenic (14.4%). Most patients with toxic hepatitis (Drug induced) (81.8%), autoimmune hepatitis (72.4%),acute HCV (66.7%) were femaleswhile most cases with leptospirosis (85.7%),heamochromatosis (83.3%),Bilharziasis (75%) were males.

Conclusion:In acute hepatitis patients, autoimmune hepatitis was the most common cause followed by toxic hepatitis. In chronic hepatitis patients, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis(NASH)was the most common cause followed bymetabolic causes.

 

Keynote Forum

Vikas Leelavati Balasaheb Jadhav

Dr.D.Y.Patil University, India

Keynote: TransAbdominal Sonography of the Stomach & Duodenum

Time : 09:45- 10:30

Conference Series Gastroenterologists 2018 International Conference Keynote Speaker Vikas Leelavati Balasaheb Jadhav photo
Biography:

Dr.Vikas Leelavati BalaSaheb Jadhav has completed PostGraduation in Radiology in 1994. He has a 23 Years of experience in the field of Gastro-Intestinal Tract Ultrasound & Diagnostic as well Therapeutic Interventional Sonography. He is the Pioneer of Gastro-Intestinal Tract Sonography, especially Gastro-Duodenal Sonography. He has delivered many Guest Lectures in Indian as well International Conferences in nearly 27 countries as an Invited Guest Faculty, since March 2000. He is a Consultant Radiologist & the Specialist in Conventional as well Unconventional Gastro-Intestinal Tract Ultrasound & Diagnostic as well Therapeutic Interventional Sonologist in Pune, India.

 

Abstract:

TransAbdominal Sonography of the Stomach & Duodenum can reveal following diseases. Gastritis & Duodenitis. Acid Gastritis. An Ulcer, whether it is superficial, deep with risk of impending perforation, Perforated, Sealed perforation, Chronic Ulcer & Post-Healing fibrosis & stricture. Polyps & Diverticulum. Benign intra-mural tumours. Intra-mural haematoma. Duodenal outlet obstruction due to Annular Pancreas. Gastro-Duodenal Ascariasis. Pancreatic or Biliary Stents. Foreign Body. Necrotizing Gastro-Duodenitis. Tuberculosis. Lesions of Ampulla of Vater like prolapsed, benign & infiltrating mass lesions. Neoplastic lesion is usually a segment involvement, & shows irregularly thickened, hypoechoic & aperistaltic wall with loss of normal layering pattern. It is usually a solitary stricture & has eccentric irregular luminal narrowing. It shows loss of normal Gut Signature. Enlargement of the involved segment seen. Shouldering effect at the ends of stricture is most common feature. Enlarged lymphnodes around may be seen. Primary arising from wall itself & secondary are invasion from peri-Ampullary malignancy or distant metastasis. All these cases are compared & proved with gold standards like surgery & endoscopy.

Some extra efforts taken during all routine or emergent ultrasonography examinations can be an effective non-invasive method to diagnose primarily hitherto unsuspected benign & malignant Gastro-Intestinal Tract lesions, so should be the investigation of choice.

 

  • Medications and Gastrointestinal diseases | Irritable Bowel Syndrome | Gallbladder Agenesis | Gallstone Pancreatitis
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Speaker

Chair

Lynnette Ferguson

University of Auckland, New Zealand

Speaker

Co-Chair

Bruce D. Given

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, USA

Session Introduction

Vikas B Jadhav

D.Y.Patil University, India

Title: TransAbdominal Sonography of the Small & Large Intestines
Speaker
Biography:

 Dr.Vikas Leelavati BalaSaheb Jadhav has completed PostGraduation in Radiology in 1994. He has a 23 Years of experience in the field of Gastro-Intestinal Tract Ultrasound & Diagnostic as well Therapeutic Interventional Sonography. He is the Pioneer of Gastro-Intestinal Tract Sonography, especially Gastro-Duodenal Sonography. He has delivered many Guest Lectures in Indian as well International Conferences in nearly 27 countries as an Invited Guest Faculty, since March 2000. He is a Consultant Radiologist & the Specialist in Conventional as well Unconventional Gastro-Intestinal Tract Ultrasound & Diagnostic as well Therapeutic Interventional Sonologist in Pune, India.

Abstract:

TransAbdominal Sonography of the Small & Large Intestines can reveal following diseases. Bacterial & Viral Entero-Colitis. An Ulcer, whether it is superficial, deep with risk of impending perforation, Perforated, Sealed perforation, Chronic Ulcer & Post-Healing fibrosis & stricture. Polyps & Diverticulum. Benign intra-mural tumours. Intra-mural haematoma. Intestinal Ascariasis. Foreign Body. Necrotizing Entero-Colitis. Tuberculosis. Intussusception. Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Cronhs Disease. Complications of an Inflammatory Bowel Disease – Perforation, Stricture. Neoplastic lesion is usually a segment involvement, & shows irregularly thickened, hypoechoic & aperistaltic wall with loss of normal layering pattern. It is usually a solitary stricture & has eccentric irregular luminal narrowing. It shows loss of normal Gut Signature. Enlargement of the involved segment seen. Shouldering effect at the ends of stricture is most common feature. Primary arising from wall itself & secondary are invasion from adjacent malignancy or distant metastasis. All these cases are compared & proved with gold standards like surgery & endoscopy.

Some extra efforts taken during all routine or emergent ultrasonography examinations can be an effective non-invasive method to diagnose primarily hitherto unsuspected benign & malignant Gastro-Intestinal Tract lesions, so should be the investigation of choice.

 

Speaker
Biography:

Céline Tiffon has completed her PhD in Tumor Biology from the University of Bern in 2007 and postdoctoral studies from the United Kingdom and France where she has been working since 2010.

 

Abstract:

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, the most common subtype of human pancreatic cancer, affects both men and women and is highly aggressive, with a five-year survival rate of only about 5%. N-myc downstream-regulated gene-1 (NDRG1) is a hypoxia-inducible and differentiation-related protein and candidate biomarker in pancreatic cancer. As NDRG1 expression is lost in high-grade tumors, the effects of the differentiating histone deacetylase inhibitor trichostatin A (TSA) were examined in human pancreatic cancer cell lines representing different tumor grades. Panc-1 (poorly differentiated) and Capan-1 (moderately- to well-differentiated) cells were treated with TSA. Effects were assessed in vitro by microscopic analysis, colorimetric assays, cell counts, real-time polymerase chain reaction, and western blotting. Treatment of Panc-1 cells over four days with 0.5 µM TSA restored cellular differentiation, inhibited proliferation, and enhanced p21Cip1 protein expression. TSA upregulated NDRG1 mRNA and protein levels under normoxia from day one and by six-fold by day four (p<0.01 at all time points). After 24 h under hypoxia, NDRG1 expression was further increased in differentiated cells (p<0.01). Favorable changes were identified in the expression of other hypoxia-regulated genes. HDAC inhibitors offer a potential novel epi-drug approach for pancreatic cancer by reversing the undifferentiated phenotype and allowing patients to overcome resistance and better respond to conventional cytotoxic treatments. Restoration of NDRG1 expression may represent a biomarker of malignant pancreatic tumors undergoing re-differentiation and redirecting toward a lower tumor grade. The use of the human ductal Panc-1 cell line treated with TSA represents a useful tool to study cellular differentiation through epigenetic mechanisms.

 

Speaker
Biography:

Gastroenterologist of Syzganov’s  National Scientific Center of  Surgery, 2012-2016 – Pediatrician of  Scientific Center of  Pediatrics and Children’s Surgery.  Research interest includes Gastroenterology, children liver transplantation and general pediatrics, scientific research, stem cell.

 

Abstract:

           Goal. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the prevention of the treatment of cytomegalovirus infection after liver transplantation in children under 1 year of age with biliary atresia.
           Material and methods. Since March 2016g. 18 liver transplants from a living related donor in children were performed. The age of the patients ranged from 7 months to 8 years. Of these, 15 (83.3%) patients with biliary atresia. The number of girls is 10 (66.7%) and boys 5 (33.3%). At the time of diagnosis, most of the children registered a formed cirrhosis of the liver.

            Results and discussion. All recipients with positive quantitative parameters of PCR received CMV-specific immunoglobulin 3-5 months before the operation. The left lateral sector was transplanted to 15 patients with biliary atresia from CMV of the seropositive related lifelong donor (D+/R+) 13 donors and from CMV 1 seronegative donor (D-/R +), 1 to the simultaneous transplantation (liver and kidney) 2 patients with cirrhosis of the liver in the outcome of autoimmune hepatitis. In all children, biliary atresia was combined with a cytomegalovirus infection, 7 of them with an active form. The observation period is from 14 days after the operation to 2 years.

           After the operation, a three-component immunosuppressive therapy was performed (prednisolone, Sellsept, Tacrolimus). Activation was noted in 2 patients with inactive form of CMV. In 2 children, neurologic symptoms developed - 1 with active form of CMV and in 1 child it was associated with a toxic effect of immunosuppressive therapy (tacrolimus), which was managed by conservative methods of treatment. All children with cytomegalovirus infection received antiviral therapy with valganciclovir at a rate of 18 mg/kg for 1 month, against which the virus load in children with an active CMV phase was reduced. Six months after the operation, in all children, the quality of PCR for CMV was negative. At 9 months after liver transplantation, 1 patient with an inactive form of CMV had an increase in viral load

          Conclusions. Thus, our experience once again confirms the role of cytomegalovirus infection in the development of biliary atresia with the formation of liver cirrhosis and requires adequate follow-up after liver transplantation.

 

Speaker
Biography:

Dr. Given has served as COO of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals since 2011.  Dr. Given retired as Chairman of the Board for ICON, plc in 2013. He was with Johnson & Johnson for 9 years, with assignments including President, International, Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics and Head of U.S. Marketing & Sales and Research & Development for Janssen Pharmaceutica. Dr. Given received his M.D. with honors from the University of Chicago, completed his medical training at University of Chicago and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he was Clinical Fellow at Harvard Medical School, and was on the medical faculty at University of Chicago.
 

 

Abstract:

Drug development work in chronic Hepatits B (CHB) has been largely stagnant for the last decade or more. While solid epidemiology work has demonstrated that seroclearance of HbsAg  (functional cure) is associated with greatly reduced risk of cirrhosis or HCC, neither interferon therapy nor long-term nucleos(t)ide therapy are associated with meaningful rates of functional cure. With the recent successes achieved in curative treatment of Hepatitis C, the field has returned to curative efforts in CHB and there has been an explosion of pre-clinical drug development against novel targets.  As part of this process, new insights have been gained regarding the biology of CHB. This talk will focus on how these new biological insights are translating into new drug discovery efforts, how these new drug classes are performing in the clinic, and the expected role for combining these drugs to achieve meaningful rates of functional cure with finite therapy.   

 

  • Gastrointestinal Disorder | Irritable Bowel Syndrome | Liver Cirrhosis | Medications and Gastrointestinal Diseases
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Speaker

Chair

Lynnette Ferguson

University of Auckland, New Zealand

Speaker

Co-Chair

Bruce D. Given

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, USA

Speaker
Biography:

 

Ali received the Bachelor of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences from King Saud University in Riyadh, KSA in 2005, and the Master of Laboratory Medicine from RMIT University in 2010, a master research in the Cytogenetic and Molecular Cytogenetic Laboratories of the Murdoch Children Research Institute in Melbourne.

He worked as medical technologist 1 in biochemistry lab in King Fahad Medical City 2006-2008 and 2011. His work involved the testing of quality control of the automated machines, analyzing and reporting blood samples for general biochemistry tests.

He is currently a PhD at RMIT University, and A lecturer in the Laboratory Medicine Department at Al-Baha University.

Ali currently research is study the evaluation of effectiveness and safety of Chinese medicine in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and liver-related disease. The common research topics include Molecular Biology, Metabolic Syndrome and Liver Diseases.

 

Abstract:

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is an advanced stage of the metabolic syndrome in liver with serious consequences largely because of hepatic injury, inflammation and fibrosis. Matrine (MW: 248) is used as a prescribed hepatoprotective drug in humans and it has been shown by us to decrease hepatosteatosis and glucose intolerance in high fat-fed mice (Bri J Pharmacol 172:4303,2015). Here, we investigated whether matrine exerts therapeutic efficacy for NASH by attenuating hepatic injury, inflammation and fibrosis. The study was performed in methionine choline-deficient (MCD) diet-fed mice for 6 weeks with or without the treatment with matrine (100 mg/kg/d). Compared with untreated MCD-fed mice, matrine markedly reduced hepatic injury (indicated by ALT level, p<0.05), inflammation (indicated by TNFα, CD68 and inflammasome NLRP3, all p<0.05). Along with these effects, matrine inhibited MCD-induced increases in fibrogenesis (as indicated by the expression levels of TGFβ, Smad3 and type I collagen (all p<0.05). Further examination revealed that matrine resecured MCD-suppressed heat shock protein 72 (HSP72, a protective chaperon protein against cell toxicity) and inhibited MCD-activated mTOR (a key master regulator triggering pathogenic pathways leading to NASH). Our findings indicate that matrine attenuated MCD-induced NASH by a new mechanism involving the upregulation of HSP72 and inhibition of mTOR. This hepatoprotective drug may be repurposed for the treatment of NASH.

Karen Frost

The Hospital for Sick Children, Canada

Title: Novel Therapies in Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Speaker
Biography:

Karen Frost completed her Masters of Science in Nursing, with specialty in Acute Care Nurse Practitioner at the University of Toronto, Ontario Canada. She also serves as an adjunct lecturer in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. Currently, she is the IBD Centre Nurse Practitioner at the Hospital for Sick Children. She is also the co founder of the national Canadian Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Group. To date, she has collaborated on research endeavors nationally and internationally with gastroenterologists with interest in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.

 

Abstract:

The incidence and prevalence of Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) continue to rise. It is expected that earlier diagnosis lends to better treatment and outcome of disease.  Nearly 1 in 4 patients are diagnosed at the age of under 20 years old . There are two  main tiers of IBD: Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis. The exact cause is still unknown, however genetics and the environment do play a role. There is currently no cure for IBD, but patients are usually managed with treatment.

Treatments can be approached in a step-up or top down algorithm. In the past, patients required steroids to achieve remission, or surgery was more imminent if lack of response was determined. At the present time, with more novel therapies in IBD, patients are able to achieve remission at a sooner time, thereby avoiding surgery. To date, there are therapies that include 5ASA, immunomodulators and biologic therapies.

Biologic therapies are still seen as novel in pediatrics.  The role of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) play a huge role in the current IBD treatment paradigm. The focus of this topic will review pediatric armamentarium of mAbs such as Anti TNF, Anti ILs and gut selective mAbs, looking at it’s targeted mechanism, the dosing recommendation, safety data and current practice.

 

Speaker
Biography:

Professor, Director of Health Science Laboratory, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Keio University, Japan

Abstract:

Bile acids (BAs), a group of structurally diverse molecules that are primarily synthesized in the liver from cholesterol, are the chief components of bile. Recent studies have revealed that BAs are not only facilitators of cholesterol homeostasis and dietary lipid absorption but also important signaling molecules exerting multiple physiological functions. Three major signaling pathways, including the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways, the nuclear hormone receptor farnesoid X receptor (FXR) mediated pathways and the G protein-coupled receptor TGR5/M-BAR mediated pathways, have been identified to be the targets of BAs. Through activation of these diverse signaling pathways, BAs can regulate their own enterohepatic circulation, but also triglyceride, energy, and glucose homeostasis. Latest studies revealed interaction between gut microbiota and bile acids are important to control diseases. Thus, BA-controlled signaling pathways are promising novel drug targets to treat common metabolic diseases, such as obesity, NAFLD, type II diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and atherosclerosis. (Up to 250 words)