BACKGROUND Patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) often have elevated serum iron markers, which may worsen liver injury. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate the possible correlations between iron metabolism serum markers, HCV viral load, and liver disease severity in treatment-naive patients with chronic hepatitis C infection. PATIENTS AND METHODS Eighty five patients with ...

En las últimas décadas, el término «copago» se ha introducido n grado y manera diferentes en muchos países europeos1, y a la ez ha aumentado también significativamente el debate social en spaña en los últimos años. El copago, también conocido en inglés omopatient cost-sharingoengeneralout-of-pocket spending bypriate households, incluye muchas posibilidades: desde la puesta en ráctica de unpagop...

Liver biopsy is the gold-standard method to stage fibrosis; however, it is an invasive procedure and is potentially dangerous. The main objective of this study was to evaluate biological markers, such as cytokines IL-13, IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha and TGF-beta, platelets, bilirubins (Bil), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total proteins, gamma-glutamil transferase ...

PURPOSE The aim of the study was to assess the liver Met-enkephalin concentration in chronic viral hepatitis type B and C as well as in liver cirrhosis in order to estimate the role of opioid system in pathogenesis of liver disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS The concentration of Met-enkephalin was examined in liver tissue of 103 consecutive patients with chronic hepatitis type B and C. Control gro...

HCV RNA levels were measured in patients with chronic hepatitis C (Cobas Amplicor HCV Monitor v2.0). Liver biopsies were obtained at baseline and after 12 months of treatment and were read independently by two hepatopathologists who were blinded to the biopsy sequence. Modified Histological Activity (HAI) Index of Knodell and Ishak fibrosis stage were used to assess changes in necroinflammatory...

The development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is generally preceded by cirrhosis, which occurs at the end stage of fibrosis. This is a common and potentially lethal problem of chronic liver disease in Asia. The development of microarrays permits us to monitor transcriptomes on a genome-wide scale; this has dramatically speeded up a comprehensive understanding of the disease process. Here we...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the diagnostic performance of magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) for staging hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS Patients with chronic HBV infection who were suspected of having focal or diffuse liver diseases (n = 195) and living donor candidates (n = 166) underwent MRE as part of the routine liver MRI ex...

Results We analyzed data from 87 patients, 68 (78.2%) of which had chronic HBV infection and 19 (21.8%), chronic HCV infection. The median age was 44.9 ± 15.0 (range 17-75). The mean body mass index (BMI) was 26.0 ± 3.6 in the HBV group and 26.7 ± 3.2 in the HCV group. Overall, 36 patients (41.4%) had normal BMI, another 36 (41.4%) had a BMI equivalent for overweight status, and 15 (17.2%) had ...

INTRODUCTION This study was conducted to compare the genotype and markers of disease severity of chronic hepatitis C (CHC), namely viral load, alanine transaminase (ALT) levels and histopathological findings on liver biopsy, in patients with and without end-stage renal disease (ESRD). METHODS This was a cross-sectional retrospective comparative study that included ESRD patients on haemodialys...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a risk factor for hepatocarcinogenesis and recurrence. Here, we sought to characterize intratumoral and peritumoral expression of HBsAg and its specific receptors in HBsAg-positive hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients and further examined their correlation with the recurrence-free survival (RFS). HCC tissue and adjacent normal tissue specimens were acquir...