Food-Based Dietary Guidelines around the World: Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Countries.

In Eastern Mediterranean countries, undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies coexist with overnutrition-related diseases, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Many Mediterranean countries have produced Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDGs) to provide the general population with indications for healthy nutrition and lifestyles. This narrative review analyses Eastern Mediterranean countries' FBDGs and discusses their pictorial representations, food groupings and associated messages on healthy eating and behaviours.

The natural history of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Prospective studies of patients with cirrhosis who are at risk for developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), have greatly improved our understanding of the natural history of this tumour. Despite many studies, the controversy of whether HCC originates from one or more than one clone of transformed liver cells is still unsettled. The natural history of HCC in many instances is an extension of that of the underlying cirrhosis, although the course of the tumour disease may vary from patient to patient and in different geographical areas.

Hepatocellular carcinoma in Italian patients with cirrhosis.

Background And Methods: Patients with cirrhosis of the liver are recognized as being at risk for hepatocellular carcinoma. The magnitude of the risk, the natural history of this disease, and the possibilities for detecting potentially curable tumors in patients in the Western world are unknown. To address these questions, we examined 447 Italian patients with well-compensated cirrhosis (which was of viral origin in 62 percent of them) from 1985 through 1990, performing serum alpha-fetoprotein assays and real-time ultrasonography every 3 to 12 months.