Vibration Controlled Transient Elastography (Fibroscan®) in sickle cell liver disease - could we strike while the liver is hard?

Vibration controlled transient elastography (VCTE) is validated for the evaluation of hepatic fibrosis in different liver diseases. Sickle cell liver disease (SCLD) results from a cumulative hepatic injury and its lifelong and progressive nature raises the need for a non-invasive tool for fibrosis evaluation. Fifty patients, aged between 23 and 59 years with sickle cell disease and suspected SCLD underwent a VCTE followed by a liver biopsy.

Intra-Hepatic Depletion of Mucosal-Associated Invariant T Cells in Hepatitis C Virus-Induced Liver Inflammation.

Background & Aims: Chronic hepatitis affects phenotypes of innate and adaptive immune cells. Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are enriched in the liver as compared with the blood, respond to intra-hepatic cytokines, and (via the semi-invariant T-cell receptor) to bacteria translocated from the gut. Little is known about the role of MAIT cells in livers of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and their fate after antiviral therapy.

Rapid decrease in hepatitis C viremia by direct acting antivirals improves the natural killer cell response to IFNα.

Objective: Chronic HCV infection is characterised by innate immune activation with increased interferon-stimulated genes (ISG) expression and by an altered phenotype of interferon-responsive natural killer (NK) cells. Here, we asked whether a rapid reduction in viremia by daclatasvir (DCV) and asunaprevir (ASV) improves the response to pegylated interferon (PegIFN) in patients who had previously failed a standard course of PegIFN/ribavirin (RBV) therapy.

Design: Twenty-two HCV-infected non-responders to previous PegIFN/RBV therapy were studied for IFN-responsiveness of NK cells during quadruple (QUAD) therapy with DCV, ASV, PegIFN and RBV.

An Epidemiologic Investigation of a Case of Acute Hepatitis E.

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is considered a zoonotic infection in developed nations. A case of acute hepatitis E in a researcher following a scalpel injury while working on a pig prompted a seroepidemiologic study to identify potential modes of transmission and determine the seroprevalence of HEV among animal handlers at the institute. Sera from personnel (n = 64) in two animal facilities and age/sex-matched blood donors (n = 63) as controls were tested for IgG anti-HEV and, if positive, for IgM anti-HEV and HEV RNA.

Factors associated with the platelet count in patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Background: There are many potential causes of thrombocytopenia in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC).

Aims: We sought to determine the association between thrombopoietin (TPO) level, immature platelet fraction (IPF), immunoglobulin G (IgG) level, spleen size, and the platelet count in CHC.

Methods: We studied a consecutive sample of patients enrolled in an observational study at a referral-based research center, excluding subjects based on eligibility criteria.

Durability of antibody response against hepatitis B virus in healthcare workers vaccinated as adults.

Background: Follow-up studies of recipients of hepatitis B vaccine from endemic areas have reported loss of antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs) in a high proportion of persons vaccinated at birth. In contrast, the long-term durability of antibody in persons vaccinated as adults in nonendemic areas is not well defined. We aimed to assess the durability of anti-HBs among healthcare workers (HCWs) vaccinated as adults and response to a booster among those without protective levels of antibody.