BACKGROUND As anorexia and hypermetabolism are common in cirrhosis, leptin levels may be increased in this disease. In this study, we investigated the relation between the severity of disease and serum leptin levels in post-hepatitis cirrhosis and the role of body composition, gender and viral aetiology of cirrhosis in this association. METHODS Thirty-five cases with post-hepatitis cirrhosis ...

Schistosomiasis mansoni affects the hepatic functional reserve. Clinical treatment with oxamniquine is not 100% effective and there has been found strain of this parasite resistant to this drug. The aims of this investigation were: (1) to examine the presence of residual parasite burden after medical and surgical treatment on adolescents with surgical schistosomiasis mansoni and (2) to assess t...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Malnutrition is common in patients with chronic liver disease. We aimed to evaluate malnutrition assessment tools in predicting severity and survival of patients with liver cirrhosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS We examined patients with liver cirrhosis. Nutritional evaluation was performed on admission, using subjective global assessment (SGA), handgrip strength (HGS), and anthr...

BACKGROUND The 13C-caffeine breath test (CBT) is a non-invasive, quantitative test of liver function which has been shown to correlate inversely to the Child-Pugh score. The aim of the study was to determine the utility of CBT in the assessment of cirrhosis and its correlation to the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score. METHODS Thirty-nine patients, 29 with cirrhosis and 10 with ch...

1. Nitric oxide is a potent vasodilator which plays a major role in the control of blood pressure. The hyperdynamic circulation of cirrhosis has been linked to nitric oxide.2. We measured neutrophil nitric oxide synthase activity in relation to the level of hepatic dysfunction in patients with liver disease of varying aetiology and severity.3. Neutrophils were isolated from 21 patients (7 Child...

Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) could achieve a better survival benefit than conservative treatment for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with portal vein tumor thrombosis (PVTT). In this retrospective study, all HCC patients with Child-Pugh score <7 and PVTT who were consecutively admitted to our center between January 2006 and June 2012 and underwent TACE were enrolled. The effic...

BACKGROUND This study evaluated the incidence of rebleeding and death at 6 weeks after a first episode of acute variceal haemorrhage (AVH) treated by emergency endoscopic sclerotherapy in a large cohort of alcoholic cirrhotic patients. METHODS From January 1984 to December 2006, 310 alcoholic cirrhotic patients (242 men, 68 women; mean age 51.7 years) with AVH underwent 786 endoscopic varicea...

BACKGROUND Trans-arterial chemoembolization (TACE) is associated with better survival in BCLC-stage B patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and Child-Pugh A whereas in Child-Pugh B there is no definite evidence of benefit. OBJECTIVES To assess the safety and efficacy of TACE during routine clinical practice in a consecutive Greek cohort of patients with unrespectable HCC. PATIENTS AN...

OBJECTIVE Portal vein thrombosis is considered a relative contraindication for transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) in hepatocellular carcinoma. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the efficacy of TACE treatment in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma with portal vein (PV) thrombosis. METHODS From April 2011 to June 2013, 17 patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma with PV...

Advanced oxidation protein products (AOPPs) are protein markers of oxidative stress with pro-inflammatory properties that accumulated in liver cirrhosis. In the present study, we investigated the association between chronic inflammatory response triggered by AOPPs and the severity of liver disease as assessed by the Child-Pugh score. Plasma concentrations of AOPPs and inflammatory markers such ...