Autoimmune Congenital Heart Block (CHB) is an immune-mediated disease caused by transplacental passage of maternal circulating anti-Ro/SSA and anti-La/SSB antibodies which can bind to fetal cardiac tissue, damaging conduction tissues inflammation fibrosis. Approximately 2% pregnancies with positive anti-Ro will be complicated atrioventricular block the risk recurrence in subsequent 10 times hig...

AbstractThis paper presents an investigation of five-Level Cascaded H – bridge (CHB) Inverter as Distribution Static Compensator (DSTATCOM) in Power System (PS) for compensation of reactive power and harmonics. The advantages of CHB inverter are low harmonic distortion, reduced number of switches and suppression of switching losses. The DSTATCOM helps to improve the power factor and eliminate t...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major cause of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) worldwide (Gao et al., 2012). Pegylated interferon alfa (PEG-IFN), which has an immunomodulatory and antiviral effects, is one of the approved agents for treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) (Hoofnagle et al., 2007). The long-term therapeutic effect of PEG-IFN is durable a...

Of the estimated 400 million patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) globally, approximately 75% are Asians, representing a clinically important subgroup with a higher risk of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma than Caucasian patients. This review summarizes recent data from clinical long-term and real-life studies of entecavir and tenofovir, the recommended first-line oral therapies for tr...

Congenital heart block (CHB) is a conduction abnormality characterized by complete atrioventricular (AV) block. CHB affects fetuses and/or newborn of mothers with autoantibodies reactive with ribonucleoproteins 48-kDa SSB/La, 52-kDa SSA/Ro, and 60-kDa SSA/Ro. We recently established animal models of CHB and reported, for the first time, significant sinus bradycardia preceding AV block. This une...

BACKGROUND Interleukin-33 (IL-33) and ST2 have been demonstrated to be associated with liver damage. However, their potential value in hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains unknown. This study was designed to investigate the change of serum IL-33 and ST2 levels in the natural course of chronic HBV infection. METHODS A total of 120 patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), 20 chronic hepati...

Hepatitis B e antigen-negative chronic hepatitis B (e-CHB) has been reported in Asia but its prevalence and clinical significance have not been determined. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of e-CHB in Hong Kong and the frequency of precore and core promoter mutations in these patients. A cross-sectional study was performed in 350 consecutive Chinese patients (230 men and ...

BACKGROUND Several rescue therapies have been used in patients with lamivudine (LAM)-resistant chronic hepatitis B (CHB); however, the economic outcome of these therapies is unclear. The object of the current analysis was to evaluate the lifetime cost-effectiveness of rescue therapies among patients with LAM-resistant CHB. METHODS A Markov model was developed to simulate the clinical course o...

Background: Entecavir (ETV) is commonly used to treat chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in China. However, certain percentages of e-Antigen (HBeAg) positive CHB patients do not respond to ETV therapy. Objective: To investigate whether the killer immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) genes were associated with seroconversion in HBeAg positive CHB responder patients treated with ETV. Methods: Polymerase cha...

Only scarce data on liver steatosis in children with chronic hepatitis B and C (CHB and CHC) are available. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence, predictors, and impact of hepatic steatosis on children with CHB and CHC. A total of 78 patients aged 11.5 ± 3.4 years were included: 30 (38%) had CHB, and 48 (62%) had CHC. Steatosis was scored on a 5-point scale, as follows: ab...