The purpose of this study was to compare the safety and efficacy of midazolam sedated Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) with unsedated ERCP in patients 70 years of ages and older.

Seventy elderly patients 70 years of age or older who underwent ERCP were divided into two groups: midazolam sedated group (n=43) and unsedated group (n=27). Procedure time, success rate, complications related with ERCP procedure, satisfaction score were analyzed between two groups.

Mean procedure time was 20.6 minutes for sedated group and 21.0 minutes for unsedated group (P=0.88). Success rate was 87.5% for sedated group and 100% for unsedated group (P=0.07). Incidence of complications from ERCP procedure showed no significant differences between the sedated and unsedated groups (P=0.10). There was no mortality in both groups related to the sedation or post-ERCP complication. Compared to the unsedated procedure, the sedated ERCP procedure was associated with higher patient satisfaction (P<0.001) and better repeat compliance (P=0.004).

There was no significant difference in success rate and complications at sedated and unsedated ERCP in patients 70 years of age and older. Unsedated ERCP showed 66.6% satisfaction score compared to sedated ERCP.

To define the abnormalities in homeostasis of B-1 B lymphocytes compartments in human SLE.

Perpheral blood was obtained from 7 patients with untreated active SLE patients and same patients at the time of incative disease after immunosuppressive therapy. The frequencies of CD5⁺CD45RA^int B-1a B lymphocyte, and CD5⁺CD45RA^low B-1b B lymphocyte, CD5^-CD45RA^high conventional B-2 lymphocyte subsets were analyzed. For the control group, peripheral blood from 7 healthy adults and 7 patients with infectious fever were utilized.

B-1a B lymphocyte subset was found at high frequency in active SLE patients compared to the fever control(33.5±15.0% vs 20.1±5.3%,p=0.01). In contrast, B-2 B lymphocyte subset was found at lower frequency compared to the fever control (65.6±15.1% vs 77.9±5.6%,p=0.04). No difference in frequency of B-1b B lymphocyte subsets was found between active SLE and the control. After immunosuppressive theray, B-1b B lymphocyte subset was markedly decreased with increase in B-2 B lymphocyte subset(p=0.05).

These results indicate that there are abnormalities in B cell conpartments with expansion of B-1a B lymphocyte subset and contraction of B-2 B lymphocyte subset associated with the disease activity in patients wite SLE.