B2 microglobulin: is it a reliable marker of activity in inflammatory bowel disease?

Objectives: The aims of this study were to investigate a possible positive correlation between B2-microglobulin (B2-M) serum levels and the severity and activity of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); and to examine whether B2-M levels reflect IBD extent.

Methods: We examined B2-M serum levels in 87 ulcerative colitis (UC) patients, 74 with Crohn's disease (CD) and 68 control subjects, using an enzymatic method. The reliability of the measuring method was assessed by evaluating serum B2-M in 18 patients suffering from chronic renal failure (CRF).

Liver histopathology in chronic common bile duct stenosis due to chronic alcoholic pancreatitis.

The liver histopathology in 40 liver biopsies from 24 patients with verified chronic common bile duct stenosis due to chronic alcoholic pancreatitis has been reviewed code-blinded. This represents an 8% prevalence of this complication in approximately 300 patients with alcoholic pancreatitis screened biochemically for alkaline phosphatase greater than two-fold for less than 1 month. The majority were anicteric with no symptoms other than from acute exacerbations of chronic pancreatitis.

Common bile duct stenosis from chronic pancreatitis: a clinical and pathologic spectrum.

The chronic pancreatitis population of Wadsworth VA Hospital over the past five years was screened for two-fold or greater alkaline phosphatase elevation at any time during their course, as a marker for either distal common bile duct stenosis or other hepatobiliary disease. Forty-seven of 207 patients screened met this criterion and are reviewed in detail. Of the 16 patients with persistent alkaline phosphatase elevation (group B), 15 had proven common bile duct stenosis, demonstrating a clear pathophysiologic role of partial bile duct obstruction in their liver disease.

Obstructive jaundice caused by hepatocellular carcinoma. Report of three cases.

A cholestatic syndrome secondary to extrahepatic biliary obstruction as the presenting manifestation of hepatocellular carcinoma is described in three cases. The mechanism is related to the invasion of intrahepatic bile ducts by the carcinoma. The consequent mechanical obstruction is due to either a continuous distally growing tumor cast of the biliary tree, distal migration of a necrotic tumor fragment, or hemobilia.

The changing incidence of association of hepatitis B with hepatocellular carcinoma in California.

Two hundred seventy-nine patients who died of hepatocellular carcinoma were autopsied at Los Angeles County--USC Medical Center and the John Wesley--USC Liver Unit from 1949 through 1974, and tissues from 168 of these cases were available for staining for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBSAg). Twenty-one per cent of the livers had stainable HBSAg. There were prominent increases both in total numbers of hepatic cancers and in the percentages that were HBSAg-positive beginning about 1970, but the numbers of hepatocellular carcinomas arising in noncirrhotic livers also increased.

An immunoperoxidase technic for the demonstration of the hepatitis B surface antigen in human livers.

A sensitive method for demonstrating the site of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in fixed tissues embedded in either paraffin or araldite is described. The method employs the peroxidase-rabbit antiperoxidase linkage through goat antirabbit to rabbit anti-HBsAg. In staining hepatitis antigen in agar, comparison of fixation (using three common fixatives) with unfixed precipitation arcs revealed no recognizable differences in antigenicity induced by fixation.