Celiac disease (CD) is an important cause of serum aminotransferase elevation: between 5 and 10% of patients with persistent and cryptogenetic transaminase elevation may have CD. In fact, a wide spectrum of liver injuries in children and adults may be related to CD, particularly: a) mild parenchymal damage characterized by absence of any clinical signs or symptoms suggesting chronic liver disea...

BACKGROUND The standard treatment for decompensated liver cirrhosis is liver transplantation. However, it has several limitations. Recent animal studies suggest that bone marrow stem cell transplantation can lead to regression of liver fibrosis. The objective of this study was to determine the safety and feasibility of autologous bone marrow-mesenchymal stem cell transplantation in patients wit...

Background/Aims Growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15) belongs to the transforming growth factor-β superfamily. GDF-15 is emerging as a biomarker for several diseases. The aim of this study was to determine the clinical performances of GDF-15 for the prediction of liver fibrosis and severity in chronic liver disease. Methods The serum GDF-15 levels were examined via enzyme immunoassay in 1...

Most patients with alpha1 antitrypsin deficiency do not receive this diagnosis until developing severe complications, in particular when respiratory symptoms are absent. This is a reason for making alpha1 antitrypsin deficiency a possible diagnosis among patients with cryptogenic cirrhosis or other conditions of liver disease without a clear etiology. In this report, a case of cryptogenic cirrh...

AIM To determine whether ribavirin (RBV) concentrations differ according to cirrhosis stage among cirrhotic patients treated with interferon-free regimens. METHODS We included patients with hepatitis C virus and cirrhosis [Child-Pugh (CP) A or B], Glomerular Filtration Rate ≥ 60 mL/min, who started therapy with DAAs and weight-based RBV between October 2014 and February 2016. RBV plasma level...

Decompensated cirrhosis is associated to extensive post-transcriptional changes of human albumin (HA). This study aims to characterize the occurrence of HA homodimerization in a large cohort of patients with decompensated cirrhosis and to evaluate its association with clinical features and prognosis. HA monomeric and dimeric isoforms were identified in peripheral blood by using a HPLC-ESI-MS te...

The natural history of cirrhosis is characterized by an asymptomatic phase, referred to as “compensated cirrhosis,” followed by a progressive phase marked by the development of complications of portal hypertension and/or liver dysfunction, designated “decompensated cirrhosis.” In the compensated phase portal pressure may be normal or below the threshold of clinically significant portal hyperten...

Though the first documented case was described by Jaksch-Wartenhorst (1923), the name 'relapsing polychondritis' was suggested by Pearson, Kline and Newcomer as late as 1960. The extreme rarity of the condition and its possible confusion with other common conditions in Bangladesh, for example, leprosy, gout and pyogenic conditions of the pinna prompted us to report this case. In addition, the p...