0000000000162426
AUTHOR
P Campagna
IgA antiendomysial antibodies on the umbilical cord in diagnosing celiac disease. Sensitivity, specificity, and comparative evaluation with the traditional kit
The possibility of assaying antiendomysial antibodies (EmA) on the human umbilical cord instead of monkey esophagus has recently been suggested. We therefore evaluated in patients with celiac disease (CD) the sensitivity and specificity of EmA and of antigliadin antibodies (AGA) for both umbilical cord and monkey esophagus.We studied 36 patients with CD and atrophy of the intestinal mucosa (median age, 1.4 years), 14 patients with CD on gluten-free diet for 8-12 months (median age, 3.0 years), 36 controls without gastrointestinal disease (median age, 4.0 years), and 72 patients with cow's milk protein enteropathy (CMPE) (median age, 1.2 years). AGA and EmA on monkey esophagus were assayed w…
Hemodynamic changes in splanchnic circulation after orthotopic liver transplantation in patients with liver cirrhosis
Background: Liver cirrhosis increases portal vein pressure and alters the splanchnic circulation. With Doppler sonography, we investigated the hemodynamic changes in the portal vein, superior mesenteric artery, hepatic and splenic arteries and spleen size in a group of patients with end-stage liver disease before and after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Methods: Ten patients (seven male, three female; mean age = 48.8 ± 7.6 years) who underwent OLT for liver cirrhosis mainly associated with hepatitis C virus infection completed the study. The control group consisted of 10 patients matched by sex and age who had no gastroenterologic or vascular diseases. All patients underwent duplex…
Comparative responses to three different types of interferon-α in patients with chronic hepatitis C
We investigated the efficacy and tolerability of three different types of interferon-alpha, administered with the same schedule to naive patients with chronic hepatitis C. One hundred and seven patients with histologically proven chronic hepatitis C were enrolled during a period of three years and randomly divided into three groups, to receive (a) leukocyte-interferon-alpha, 6 MU three times a week for 4 months, followed by 3 MU three times a week for 8 months (Group I); (b) recombinant-IFN-alpha-2a, with the same schedule (Group II); and (c) lymphoblastoid-IFN-alpha-N1, with the same schedule (Group III). All patients were followed-up for 6 months to evaluate the long-term response. The 'C…