Usefulness of transcranial echography in patients with decompressive craniectomy: a comparison with computed tomography scan.

Objective: To assess the agreement between computed tomography and transcranial sonography in patients after decompressive craniectomy.

Design: Prospective study.

Setting: The medical intensive care unit of a university-affiliated teaching hospital.

Predictive value of early virological response to treatment with different interferon-based regimens plus ribavirin in patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Early virological response (EVR) to different interferon-based regimens plus ribavirin and its ability to predict the outcome of therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C were investigated. The study design was as follows: 64 naive patients were considered, 32/64 received pegylated interferon alpha-2b (Peg-IFN-alpha2b) plus ribavirin and the remaining 32 received leucocyte interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) plus ribavirin. At week 4 of treatment, EVR was present in 68.

Asymptomatic systemic sarcoidosis arising 5 years after IFN-alpha treatment for chronic hepatitis C: a new challenge for clinicians.

Interferon (IFN)-induced sarcoidosis is well documented. Herein, we report the case of a patient with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) who developed IFN-alpha-induced sarcoidosis. The clinical features of this case make it unique among all cases so far described.

[Multiple extrahepatic manifestations in a patient with chronic hepatitis C treated with interferon-alfa].

The case of a 61-years-old female patient with chronic hepatitis C who developed multiple consecutive extrahepatic manifestations is reported. One of these manifestations (lichen planus) appeared before HCV-related chronic hepatitis was diagnosed and treated with interferon-alpha, suggesting that it was likely associated with HCV itself. Other manifestations appeared during IFN-alpha treatment (polyarthritis) or after the end of treatment (ulcerative cholitis, sarcoidosis) implying a role for either HCV or IFN-alpha treatment in the pathogenesis of extrahepatic manifestations.