Biliary obstruction is a common clinical manifestation of various conditions, including extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. However, a screening test for diagnosis of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma in patients with biliary obstruction is not yet available. According to the rationale that the biliary system plays a major role in lipid metabolism, biliary obstruction may interfere with lipid profil...

OBJECTIVE Cystatin C is a very potent inhibitor of cysteine proteinases and, it has been clinically applied as a sensitive marker in monitoring of renal and liver functions. The aim of this study was to reveal whether cystatin C may be a useful marker for distinguishing intra- versus extrahepatic cholestasis. MATERIALS AND METHODS Serum cystatin C concentrations were determined by nephelometr...

Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis is defined by a positive ascitic fluid bacterial culture and an elevated ascitic fluid absolute polymorphonuclear count (≥250 cells/mm3) without an evident intra-abdominal, surgically treatable source of infection. Transient ascites is well documented in patients with extrahepatic portal venous obstruction but spontaneous bacterial peritonitis complicating extr...

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been associated with various extrahepatic manifestations, including autoimmune cytopenias. Primary autoimmune haemolytic anaemia (AIHA) has been reported as an unusual extrahepatic manifestation. Combination therapy with pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin (RBV) is the current treatment of choice for chronic HCV infection. However, this the...

To further explore the controversial potential for extrahepatic replication of hepatitis C virus (HCV), the highly strand-specific rTth method of reverse transcriptase PCR was used to examine sera, liver, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and other extrahepatic tissues from HCV-infected chimpanzees and humans. Positive-strand HCV RNA was present in the liver at approximately 10-fold-higher le...

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...

AIM To clarify the benefit of surgical excision for patients with extrahepatic metastases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 140 patients with pathologically proven extrahepatic metastases of HCC and evaluated the outcomes of those who had undergone surgical resection (SR) for extrahepatic metastatic lesions. Prognoses made on the bas...

The aim of this study was to examine whether the type of bilioenterostomy enhances biliary carcinogenesis in the hamster model. Syrian hamsters were divided into the following groups; simple laparotomy (control group), cholecystoduodenostomy with dissection of the extrahepatic bile duct on the distal end of the common duct (CDDB group) and cholecystoileostomy with dissection of the extrahepatic...

<i>Fascioliasis hepatica</i> is a rare parasitic infection affecting the hepatobiliary system. On imaging examination, it presents as multiple hepatic abscesses and bile duct dilatation. Extrahepatic fascioliasis of gastrointestinal tract condition, resulting from duodenal migration fasciola flukes. The current case showed both colonic masses, mimicking colon cancer with metastasis....

Extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (CC) is an aggressive malignancy with dismal prognosis and characterized by early invasion, metastasis and postoperative recurrence. Therefore, understanding the main molecular mechanisms of this malignancy is the key for the development of novel and effective therapeutic strategies for extrahepatic CC. Foxj2 is a novel forkhead factor. Several FOX family members...