Chronic hepatitis C can be associated with extrahepatic manifestations; thus, we explored the association of this viral infection with dilated cardiomyopathy in a group of sixty-three patients with a cardiac ejection fraction of less than 40% determined by an echocardiogram in a prospective study. Two of the forty-one patients with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy (4.8%) had serum antibodies to the ...

The goal of antiviral therapy for patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is to attain a sustained virologic response (SVR), which is defined as undetectable serum HCV-RNA levels at 6 months after the cessation of treatment. Major improvements in antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis C have occurred in the past decade. The addition of ribavirin to interferon-alfa therapy and t...

conclusions the results indicated that there was a positive association between susceptibility to chronic hbv infection and tnf-α polymorphism. in addition, hbv patients carrying -308 gg, -857 cc, and -863 aa genotypes with lower serum levels of tnf-α had an increased risk of infection. background the host genetic background regulates the natural history of chronic hepatitis b virus (hbv) infec...

Lipid metabolism disorders related to viral etiology are described in chronic viral hepatitis, independent of age, gender and liver synthetic function. Steatosis is present, especially in chronic hepatitis C but also in chronic hepatitis B. Although liver biopsy is the gold standard in determining presence of steatosis, its presence can be determined by ultrasonographic examination as an initia...

Background & Aims: Hepatitis B infection is a global health problem. Hepatitis B virus can escape from the innate immune system, however adaptive immune system mainly acts against it. Transforming growth factor (TGF-) has three isoforms in mammals. Several studies have recently shown that TGF-1 suppresses replication of hepatitis B virus. Moreover, high expression of this factor is effective in...