0000000000503580
AUTHOR
G. Vizzini
Competing risks and prognostic stages of cirrhosis: A 25-year inception cohort study of 494 patients
Summary Background Morphological, haemodynamic and clinical stages of cirrhosis have been proposed, although no definite staging system is yet accepted for clinical practice. Aim To investigate whether clinical complications of cirrhosis may define different prognostic disease stages. Methods Analysis of the database from a prospective inception cohort of 494 patients. Decompensation was defined by ascites, bleeding, jaundice or encephalopathy. Explored potential prognostic stages: 1, compensated cirrhosis without oesophago-gastric varices; 2, compensated cirrhosis with varices; 3, bleeding without other complications; 4, first nonbleeding decompensation; 5, any second decompensating event.…
The effect of CYP3A5 and ABCB1 single nucleotide polymorphisms on tacrolimus dose requirements in Caucasian liver transplant patients
Background: Tacrolimus is a substrate of cytochrome P-450 (CYP) 3A enzyme and of the drug transporter ABCBl. We have investigated the effects of possible relevant CYP3A5 and ABCBl single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) present in both donors and recipients on tacrolimus blood levels achieved in a population of 32 Caucasian liver transplant patients. Material/Methods: At 1, 3 and 6 months after transplantation, tacrolimus doses (mg/kg/day) and trough blood levels (C0) were determined. Polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis was used for gen-otyping CYP3A5*3 [6986A>G] as well as ABCBl at exons 21 [2677G>T] and 26 [3435C>T]. Results:87.5…
Prevention of Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Cirrhotic Patients
The prevalence of varices in patients with cirrhosis is stated to be about 50% and the risk of variceal bleeding 40% with mortality ranging from 30% to 60%. Differences may be due to patient selection and diagnostic criteria. The death risk of first bleeding seems to be higher than that of subsequent episodes (Christensen et al. 1981; D’Amico et al. 1986), indicating that the first bleeding episode causes a selection.