Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a cholestatic liver disease of unknown etiopathogenesis characterized by fibrous cholangiopathy of large and small bile ducts. Systemic administration of a murine TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) receptor agonist induces a sclerosing cholangitis injury in C57BL/6 mice, suggesting endogenous TRAIL may contribute to sclerosing cholangitis syndr...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Laparoscopic transcystic common bile duct exploration (LTCBDE) is a complex procedure requiring expertise in laparoscopic and choledochoscopic skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate the safety and feasibility of treating biliary calculi through laparoscopic transcystic exploration of the CBD via an ultrathin choledochoscope combined with dual-frequency la...

Polycystic liver disease is a well described manifestation of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). Biliary tract complications are less well recognized. We report a 50-year single-center experience of 1007 patients, which raised a hypothesis that ADPKD is associated with biliary tract disease. We tested this hypothesis using all England Hospital Episode Statistics data (1998-20...

Sonic hedgehog (SHh) signaling is essential for normal development of the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract and is reported to be aberrantly activated in GI cancers. However, the association between SHh signaling and extrahepatic biliary tract cancer is not clearly understood. In this study, we evaluated the activities of SHh family proteins and t...

a 43-year-old man with liver cirrhosis received transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (tips) for the treatment of recurrent variceal bleeding and f3 esophageal varices. during routine follow up liver ultrasound examination, six months after the implantation, tips occlusion was suspected and tips revision was performed. during the revision, moderate to severe stenosis at the hepatic veno...

Copyright © 2016 Mohamad H. Imam et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Biliary tract disorders encompass a wide range of benign and malignant disease processes. In this special issue, we aimed to highlight advance...

Chemotherapy is indispensable for the treatment of advanced biliary tract cancer. Recently, reports regarding first-line chemotherapy have increased, and first-line chemotherapy treatment has become gradually more sophisticated. Gemcitabine and cisplatin combination therapy (or gemcitabine and oxaliplatin combination therapy) have become the standard of care for advanced biliary tract cancer. O...

BACKGROUND In 2013, an unusually high incidence of biliary tract cancer among current or former workers of the offset color proof printing department of a printing company in Osaka, Japan, was reported. The purpose of this study was to examine whether distance from the printing factory was associated with incidence of biliary tract cancer and whether incident biliary tract cancer cases clustere...

BACKGROUND Numerous recent reports describe the performance of laparoscopic procedures through a single incision. Although the feasibility of this approach for a variety of procedures is currently being established, little data are available regarding safety. CASE REPORT A 65-year-old female patient who was transferred from an outside institution had undergone a single incision laparoscopic c...