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World J Gastroenterol. Jan 14, 2027; 33(2): 123951
Published online Jan 14, 2027. doi: 10.3748/wjg.123951
Published online Jan 14, 2027. doi: 10.3748/wjg.123951
Total bile acid better reflects the early biochemical biliary drainage response after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography
Guo-Lin Liao, Hai-Xing Wei, Jian-Fu Qin, Fei Qin, Jie Wang, Shi-Quan Liu, Jie-An Huang, Meng-Bin Qin, Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530007, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Co-corresponding authors: Jie-An Huang and Meng-Bin Qin.
Author contributions: Qin MB and Huang JA conceived and designed the study, critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content, and they contributed equally to this manuscript as co-corresponding authors; Wei HX, Qin JF, Qin F, Wang J, and Liu SQ contributed to data acquisition, data curation, and interpretation of the data; Qin MB performed the clinical review and supervised the study; Liao GL and Wang J conducted the statistical analysis; Liao GL drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
AI contribution statement: ChatGPT was used only to draft and troubleshoot R code for analysis and figure preparation, not to generate manuscript text, interpretations, or conclusions. ChatGPT was used solely to assist with drafting and troubleshooting R code, all statistical analyses were conducted, and all figures were generated, by the authors using R software. No figure or image was generated by artificial intelligence. All code, analyses, figures, and outputs were independently reviewed and verified by the authors.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, approval No. 2018-KYL (003).
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Corresponding author: Meng-Bin Qin, MD, Professor, Deputy Director, Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, No. 166 Daxuedong Road, Nanning 530007, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
Received: June 3, 2026
Revised: June 24, 2026
Accepted: July 17, 2026
Published online: January 14, 2027
Processing time: 158 Days and 0.3 Hours
Revised: June 24, 2026
Accepted: July 17, 2026
Published online: January 14, 2027
Processing time: 158 Days and 0.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Bilirubin-based markers are commonly used to assess the biliary drainage response after therapeutic endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, but their early postoperative changes may be limited. In this real-world cohort, total bile acid (TBA) declined earlier and more markedly than direct and total bilirubin. Although gamma-glutamyl transferase and alkaline phosphatase also declined after drainage, their early changes were smaller than those of TBA. These findings support TBA as a responsive adjunctive marker of early biochemical recovery after biliary drainage.