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37 GASTROENTEROLOGY A Pilot Case Unlike Any Other — Massachusetts General Hospital Transplants Hepatitis-C Tainted Liver By Eric Oliver B orn with biliary atresia, Ben Blake, 26, underwent his first liver transplant when he was seven months old. Twenty years later, his liver was failing and he needed a replacement. He waited five years on the organ transplant list, and wasn't close to receiving another liver. It was then that physicians at Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital approached the family with an idea; to use a hepatitis-c tainted liver, the Boston Globe reports. Here's what you should know. 1. Mr. Blake elected to be among the first in the country to receive such a transplant. e procedure works by enrolling a patient into a hepatitis-C drug trial before and aer the transplant. "e idea is that it keeps the virus from spreading outside the liver and shuts it down within the organ itself," according to the Boston Globe. 2. e procedure is relatively new. e Inter- mountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah says it was the first facility to perform a con- taminated liver transplant. Baltimore-based John Hopkins Hospital and Philadelphia's Perelman School of Medicine researchers be- gan a pilot study of 10 patients who received tainted kidneys last year. e eight patients John Hopkins physicians operated on have not yet contracted hepatitis- C, but are still at risk. 3. Charles Rosen, MD, of the Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic said there's a risk that a patient could contract hepatitis-C and be immune to the cure. However, he told the Boston Globe, "It's a very reasonable thing to do on a patient-by-patient situation." 4. As for Mr. Blake, his surgery was a success. He has shown no signs of infection, but phy- sicians admitted him to the hospital for two stays because of possible infection. n Sensor Can Detect IBD During Colonoscopy: 6 Key Notes By Eric Oliver R esearchers from Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt Univer- sity created an endoscope that uses Raman spectroscopy, a chemical-fingerprinting technique, to detect inflammatory bowel disease in the colon. Here's what you should know. 1. Comprised of a minimally invasive probe, physicians use the sensor during routine colonoscopies. 2. The probe can detect and differentiate IBD's unique molecular signature. 3. Researchers developed a portable Raman spectroscopy system using a 785 nm diode laser and a fiber-optic probe that can deliver 80 mW to the surface of the colon. 4. Researchers previously used Raman spectroscopy for cancer de- tection, but modified the system to detect the specific signatures affiliated with inflammation. 5. In a pilot test, the researchers used the device in 15 patients with a Crohn's diagnosis, eight patients with ulcerative colitis and eight controls. The results suggested the device could detect IBD but couldn't differentiate between the subtypes. When measuring patients with active inflammation, the device de- tected Crohn's disease with 90 percent sensitivity. 6. The researchers are in the process of developing algorithms to help physicians interpret test results. n Colonoscopies Fail to Increase Under ACA: 3 Key Notes By Eric Oliver T he ACA's goal of increasing preventive cancer screenings was partially success- ful, Health Leaders Media reports. A study published in CANCER found that while mammographies increased under the ACA, colo- noscopies did not. Researchers examined data sets for women 70 years old and older who had not undergone a mammography in at least two years, and for men and women 70 years old and older who had not undergone a colonoscopy in five years. Here's what you should know. 1. The ACA eliminated many of the out-of-pocket costs associated with preventive cancer screening. 2. The researchers found more women across eco- nomic subgroups underwent mammograms than men or women who sought out colonoscopies. 3. The researchers suspect colonoscopy rates didn't increase because of the need for bowel preparation before a procedure. n