Search results for "Liver cirrhosis."

Response to Dr. Sertoglu and colleagues

2015

Reading the stars for hepatic fibrosis or how to predict the severity of liver disease in patients with NASH

2018

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Non-invasive biomarkers are needed for monitoring changes in liver histology in patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Obeticholic acid (OCA) was shown to improve fibrosis in patients with NASH in the FLINT trial; a post hoc analysis of these data was performed to determine the relationship between 3 non-invasive fibrosis markers and liver fibrosis improvement. METHODS: In the Phase 2b FLINT trial, patients were randomised (1:1) to receive 25 mg OCA or placebo once daily for 72 weeks. Aspartate aminotransferase:platelet ratio index (APRI), fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) index, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease fibrosis score (NFS) were evaluated in serum at baseline …

β-Thalassemia heterozygote state detrimentally affects health expectation.

2018

Background: Thalassemia minor (Tm) individuals, are generally considered healthy. However, the prognosis of Tm individuals has not been extensively studied. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognosis of Tm versus controls without β-thalassemia carrier state. Methods: A total of 26,006 individuals seeking thalassemia screening at the AOOR Villa Sofia-V. Cervello, Palermo (Italy) were retrospectively studied. Logistic penalised regression model was used to estimate risk of potential complications and survival techniques were used to study mortality. Results: We identified a total of 4943 Tm and 21,063 controls. Tm was associated with significantly higher risks of hospitalisation for …

PNPLA3 rs738409 C>G Variant Predicts Fibrosis Progression by Noninvasive Tools in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

2020

Liver fibrosis is the main predictor of events in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD),1 and its evolution is characterized by a nonlinear trend2,3 mostly affected by metabolic risk factors, severity of liver inflammation and steatosis, and weight loss.3 The rs738409 C>G common variant in PNPLA3 gene has been associated with severity of fibrosis and risk of liver-related events in NAFLD.4,5 Noninvasive tests as Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) and liver stiffness measurement (LSM) are useful to rule-out advanced fibrosis and they could be reliable to predict fibrosis progression.2,6 We aimed to evaluate in patients with NAFLD whether PNPLA3 rs738409 C>G variant impacts on fibrosis…

Mitochondrial oxidative injury: a key player in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

2020

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become the most prevalent liver disease worldwide. NAFLD is tightly linked to the metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and oxidative stress. Globally, its inflammatory form, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), has become the main cause of liver-related morbidity and mortality, mainly due to liver cirrhosis and primary liver cancer. One hallmark of NASH is the presence of changes in mitochondrial morphology and function that are accompanied by a blocked flow of electrons in the respiratory chain, which increases formation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species in a self-perpetuating vicious cycle. Consequences are oxidation of DNA bases and …

Long-term evolution of LI-RADS observations in HCV-related cirrhosis treated with direct-acting antivirals.

2021

Background & Aims The risk of progression of indeterminate observations to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after direct-acting antivirals (DAA) is still undetermined. To assess whether DAA therapy changes the risk of progression of observations with low (LR-2), intermediate (LR-3) and high (LR-4) probability for HCC in cirrhotic patients and to identify predictors of progression. Methods This retrospective study included cirrhotic patients treated with DAA who achieved sustained virological response between 2015 and 2019. A total of 68 patients had pre-DAA indeterminate observations and at least six months CT/MRI follow-up before and after DAA. Two radiologists reviewed CT/MRI studies to…

Fibrosis evaluation by transient elastography in patients with long-term sustained HCV clearance.

2013

Background: Reversibility of advanced fibrosis after HCV-clearance is an important goal of therapy. Objectives: Measuring liver stiffness (LS) by transient elastography (TE) might be helpful in this setting. Patients and Methods: We evaluated 104 patients with biopsy-proven chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and sustained virological response (SVR) after Peg-Interferon (IFN) plus ribavirin since at least 18 months. HCV-eradication was confirmed searching for serum HCV-RNA (TMA® sensitivity > 5-10 IU/ml). Data from literature reported the best LS cut-off values for different stages of liver fibrosis were 7.1 kPa for Metavir stage 2 (F2), 9.5 kPa for F3 and 12.5 for cirrhosis (F4). Results: TE was not…

Fibrosis in chronic viral hepatitis

2011

In the last years, several studies have been performed with the aim to evaluate the real impact of antiviral treatments on fibrosis progression in patients with chronic viral hepatitis. The main goal of therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis B is viral suppression. This outcome leads to an important improvement in both hepatic inflammation and fibrosis and reduces the HCC occurrence. An histological improvement has been largely demonstrated in patient treated with oral nucleoside and nucleotide analogs achieving the rate of 72% with entecavir and tenofovir. Similarly, in patients with chronic hepatitis C, sustained virologic response to interferon therapy is associated with regression o…

Liver fibrosis induced by hepatic overexpression of PDGF-B in transgenic mice

2006

Background/Aims In hepatic fibrogenesis, stellate cells are activated leading to production and deposition of extracellular matrix. To clarify the role of PDGF-B in liver fibrogenesis, we overexpressed PDGF-B in the liver of transgenic mice. Methods Transgenic mice for the conditional overexpression of PDGF-B in the liver under control of an albumin promoter were generated utilising the Cre/loxP system. Constitutive PDGF-B expression was achieved after breeding with mice expressing Cre-recombinase under actin promoter control. Tamoxifen inducible expression was achieved after breeding with mice expressing Cre under transthyretin receptor promoter control. Levels of fibrosis were assessed an…

Dynamics of liver stiffness by transient elastography in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection receiving direct-acting antiviral therapy-…

2020

The impact of direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapies on fibrosis regression remains uncertain. In the current study, we prospectively evaluated dynamics of liver stiffness by transient elastography (TE) in patients with chronic HCV infection receiving DAA-based treatment. Patients (260) were enrolled in the German Hepatitis C-Registry (DHC-R), a national multicentre real-world cohort. Liver stiffness (LS) was assessed at baseline, end of treatment (EOT) and 24 weeks after EOT (FU24) by TE. Biochemical, virological and clinical data were obtained in parallel. In patients with SVR, there was a significant improvement of LS between baseline (median [range], 8.6 [1.7-73.5] kPa) and FU24 (7.9 […