Search results for " hepatitis"
showing 10 items of 546 documents
Long-term management and prognosis of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH): a single center experience.
2001
Background Controlled trials have firmly established the need for immunosuppressive therapy in autoimmune hepatitis. However, reports about long-term management and prognosis of the disease are scarce. Patients and methods We reviewed the charts of 103 consecutive patients with a well-documented long-term course of autoimmune hepatitis who had been carefully managed over a mean observation period of 95 months (12-405 months). Results Under immunosuppressive therapy 94 patients (91.2%) reached complete remission after a mean treatment duration of 3 +/- 3 months. 28 of the 103 patients (27.2%) were eligible for a trial of treatment withdrawal after a mean treatment duration of 32.2 months (ra…
Therapy expectations and physical comorbidity affect quality of life in chronic hepatitis C virus infection.
2007
Summary. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with a significant reduction of health related quality of life (QOL), the causes and mechanisms of which are still unknown. To explore whether treatment history could affect QOL, we examined patients with detectable HCV viraemia who had a different therapeutic background. Two hundred sixty-four consecutive subjects with chronic HCV infection and detectable viraemia were enrolled. Of these, 163 were untreated patients, 43 were relapsers, 58 were nonresponders (NR) to nonpegylated interferon (IFN) therapy. To assess QOL, three self-report instruments were employed: the Short Form-36 (SF-36), the Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire (CLD…
HCV genotypes in Sicily: is there any evidence of a shift?
2009
The distribution of HCV strains in any area is characterized by a relative prevalence of one genotype, and a number of less prevalent types. In some Western countries a change from the prevalent HCV genotype 1 to genotypes 3 and 4 has been reported in the last decade. In order to assess possible variations of the distribution of HCV genotypes in Sicily, a southern region of Italy, a hospital-based cohort, collected prospectively, of 3,209 subjects with chronic HCV infection was surveyed, comparing the distribution of HCV genotypes during two consecutive periods, from 1997 to 2002 and from 2003 to 2007, according to age and gender. The results show that genotype 1b, which has been historical…
Variability of reverse transcriptase and overlapping S gene in hepatitis B virus isolates from untreated and lamivudine-resistant chronic hepatitis B…
2009
Background The high degree of diversity of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) quasispecies in chronically infected individuals raises the possibility that HBV genetic variants favouring resistance to nucleoside/nucleotide analogues (NAs) might pre-exist to treatment. The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic variability of the entire HBV reverse transcriptase (RT) domain and of the overlapping S gene in a large series of untreated hepatitis B surface antigen carriers and in lamivudine (3TC)-resistant patients. Methods Sequencing analysis of the entire HBV RT domain of isolates from 100 untreated (treatment- naive group) and 59 3TC-resistant (3TC-resistant group) consecutive patients wit…
Vitamin D levels and IL28B polymorphisms are related to rapid virological response to standard of care in genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C.
2011
Background Genotype 1 (G1) chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients achieving a rapid virological response (RVR) on pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) plus ribavirin have a high chance of sustained virological response (SVR), influenced by IL28B status, viral load, fibrosis and insulin resistance. We assessed whether 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) serum levels are linked to RVR and can be used together with IL28B to construct a pretreatment model to predict RVR. Methods A total of 117 consecutive patients with G1 CHC were evaluated by biopsy and anthropometric and metabolic measurements. 25(OH)D serum levels were measured by HPLC. IL28B rs12979860 and rs8099917 polymorphisms were also evaluated. All p…
The human hepatic asialoglycoprotein receptor is a target antigen for liver-infiltrating T cells in autoimmune chronic active hepatitis and primary b…
1990
Autoantibodies to the human hepatic asialoglycoprotein receptor have been found in nearly 50% of the sera of patients with autoimmune chronic active hepatitis and in 15% of patients with primary biliary cirrhosis. In this study we demonstrate that the human hepatic asialoglycoprotein receptor is also a target antigen for T cell-mediated immune responses. Peripheral blood lymphocytes of 37% (7 of 19) of patients with autoimmune chronic active hepatitis and 33% (2 of 6) of patients with primary biliary cirrhosis showed a proliferative response to highly purified human hepatic asialoglycoprotein receptor, whereas no proliferation was found with peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients with chr…
Agomelatine and Hepatotoxicity: Implications of Cumulated Data Derived from Spontaneous Reports of Adverse Drug Reactions
2013
Considering the antidepressant agomelatine (AGM) there is a discrepancy between the widespread knowledge of the potential of AGM to cause hepatotoxic adverse drug reactions (ADR) and the availability of corresponding published data. This impedes an adequate assessment of the hepatotoxicity profile of AGM. We conducted a query of the database of a German Medical Regulatory Body (BfArM) and analyzed spontaneous reports of hepatotoxic ADR. We identified n=58 cases of AGM-related hepatotoxic ADR. Most frequent ADR was asymptomatic increase of liver enzymes (79%); n=6 patients (10%) with AGM-related toxic hepatitis were reported. Characteristics of patients: female sex (69%), age > 50 years (mea…
LOW-DOSE INTERLEUKIN-2 INDUCES SYSTEMIC IMMUNE RESPONSES AGAINST HBsAg IN IMMUNODEFICIENT NON-RESPONDERS TO HEPATITIS B VACCINATION
1989
Abstract A metabolic monocyte defect appears to correlate with non-responsiveness to hepatitis B vaccine in many patients on haemodialysis. This defect prevents production of interleukin-2 during T-cell activation after antigen contact. Receptors for interleukin-2 are, however, expressed in greater numbers than in healthy subjects or uraemic responders to hepatitis B vaccination. In this study, ten uraemic patients, previous non-responders to vaccination against hepatitis B, were revaccinated with the same vaccine combined with one intramuscular injection (2·5 × 10 5 U) of natural human interleukin-2. Systemic production of antibodies against hepatitis B surface antigen was initiated in tho…
Influence of Thymopentin on Antibody Response, and Monocyte and T Cell Function in Hemodialysis Patients Who Fail to Respond to Hepatitis B Vaccinati…
1990
We investigated the influence of thymopentin as an adjuvant for hepatitis B vaccination on in vitro monocyte and T cell function and in vivo antibody response in a prospective, placebo-controlled double-blind trial in 20 low- and nonresponders to hepatitis B vaccination on chronic hemodialysis. 50 mg thymopentin was given subcutaneously twice per week for 3 weeks, followed by 1 intramuscular injection of 40 micrograms HB-Vax and 3 subsequent injections of thymopentin. After 1 month, the patients were boostered with 40 micrograms HB-Vax. There was no significant difference in T cell and monocyte function after administration of thymopentin, as determined in vitro. After 3 months, 3 patients …
Clinical outcome of HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B in relation to virological response to lamivudine.
2004
The effect of lamivudine treatment on the outcome of patients with hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative chronic hepatitis is unclear. In a retrospective multicenter study, we have analyzed the virological events observed during lamivudine therapy in patients with HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis and evaluated the correlation between virological response and clinical outcomes. Among 656 patients (mean age 49.1 years) included in the database, 54% had chronic hepatitis, 30% had Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) A cirrhosis, and 16% had CTP B/C cirrhosis. On therapy (median 22 months, range 1–66), a virological response was obtained in 616 patients (93.9%). The rate of maintained virological respons…