Comparison between hepatocellular carcinoma prognostic scores: A 10-year single-center experience and brief review of the current literature.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents the most common primitive liver malignancy. A relevant concern involves the lack of agreement on staging systems, prognostic scores, and treatment allocation algorithms.

Aim: To compare the survival rates among already developed prognostic scores.

The role of elastography in alcoholic liver disease: fibrosis staging and confounding factors, a review of the current literature.

Introduction: Alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) was estimated to have a prevalence of 2% among the USA population. Since severe fibrosis in compensated patients is the main predictor of long-term survival, it is of utmost importance to early detect patients with severe fibrosis before decompensation occurs. Liver elastography has been used to stage liver fibrosis.

Spleen stiffness can be employed to assess the efficacy of spontaneous portosystemic shunts in relieving portal hypertension.

Introduction: Spleen stiffness (SS) has been found to mirror dynamic changes in portal pressure after transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) placement. However, there is no data available regarding SS in patients with spontaneous portosystemic shunting (SPSS), especially in regards to prediction of hepatic decompensation.

Methods: We retrospectively selected patients with confirmed SPSS and esophageal varices (EVs) at endoscopic examination, and recorded any decompensating event (i.

Alanine aminotransferase and spleno-portal dynamics affect spleen stiffness measured by point shear-wave elastography in patients with chronic hepatitis C in the absence of significant liver fibrosis.

Background: Spleen stiffness (SS) has gained a lot of interest in the context of liver cirrhosis and portal hypertension stratification. However, there is a paucity of data on confounding factors that may alter SS values.

Methods: Between January 2018 and October 2019, we enrolled 120 healthy subjects and 117 patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection who did not have significant liver fibrosis (i.

Spleen Stiffness Probability Index (SSPI): A simple and accurate method to detect esophageal varices in patients with compensated liver cirrhosis.

Introduction And Objectives: Recent findings pointed out that even low-risk esophageal varices (EVs) are markers of severe prognosis. Accordingly, we analyzed spleen stiffness (SS) as a non-invasive method to predict EVs of any grade in a cohort of patients with compensated liver cirrhosis.

Method: We measured SS and liver stiffness (LS) using point-Shear-Wave Elastography (pSWE) with Philips Affiniti 70 system in 210 cirrhotic patients who had undergone endoscopic screening for EVs.

Evaluation of spleen stiffness in healthy volunteers using point shear wave elastography.

Introduction And Objectives: This study aims to measure the values of spleen stiffness (SS) in healthy subjects, the inter-operator agreement in SS measurement, and to detect statistically significant correlations between SS and age, sex, weight, BMI, portal vein dynamics and splenic dimensions.

Materials And Methods: The study included 100 healthy volunteers who had no substantial alcohol intake (<30g/daily for man, <20g/daily women), were negative on hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV blood serology, and had any history of lymphoproliferative disorders. Abdominal ultrasound, liver and spleen elastography were performed on each patient to search for focal splenic lesions, bile tract or portal vein dilatation, moderate/severe liver steatosis, and to measure liver and spleen stiffness.

Simultaneous gas-chromatographic measurement of rhamnose, lactulose and sucrose and their application in the testing gastrointestinal permeability.

Background: As it is important to test gastric and intestinal permeability simultaneously in gastrointestinal disorders such as Celiac disease, we developed a gas-chromatographic (GC) method to estimate rhamnose (L-rh), lactulose (Lacl) and sucrose (Suc) in urine.

Methods: The method is based on the use of alditol acetate derivatives giving a lower number of GC peaks than reducing sugars do. Acetate derivatives are more stable and less expensive than GC silylates and keep the flame-detector cleaner.

Effect of chronic administration of tacrolimus and cyclosporine on human gastrointestinal permeability.

The antirejection drug tacrolimus (FK506) has been reported to impair intestinal permeability in an early stage after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT), and cyclosporine (CsA) has shown a similar effect in animals. We studied the chronic effect of FK506 and CsA on gastroduodenal and intestinal permeability and on blood endotoxin levels in patients 2 to 3 years after OLT. Thirty-two OLT patients (22 men and 10 women; mean age, 44.