0000000000789160
AUTHOR
L. Pasta
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.
Disseminated non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and chronic hepatitis C: a case report.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is occasionally associated to B-cell type non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Evidence showing a possible etiological link between HCV and lymphoma has been reported from areas of high HCV prevalence. We describe the case of a 68-year-old woman with B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma mainly involving the skin. Typical manifestations of disease were cutaneous nodules, red-violet in color, scattered on the entire body and adherent to the subcutaneous tissue. A 3-cm nodule excised from the leg was found at histology to consist of centroblastic-like B cells, which stained positively for CD45, CD20 and CD79a. Although the patient was treated with different chemotherapy schedules…
Terlipressin or vasopressin plus transdermal nitroglycerin in a treatment strategy for digestive bleeding in cirrhosis
Between 1988 and 1990 an unblinded, randomized trial of terlipressin or vasopressin plus transdermal nitroglycerin, as part of a treatment strategy including emergency sclerotherapy for actively bleeding varices, was conducted during 165 admissions in 137 patients with cirrhosis and upper digestive bleeding. Eighty-four patient admissions were assigned to terlipressin (2 mg every 6 h) and 81 to vasopressin (0.4 to 0.8 unit per min) plus transdermal nitroglycerin (20 to 80 mg). The two groups were comparable for relevant clinical data, but there were slightly more patients with hepatocellular carcinoma or terminal conditions in the terlipressin group. After the 24-h study period, failure to …