Ammonia is a product of amino acid metabolism that accumulates in the blood of patients with cirrhosis and plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of hepatic encephalopathy (HE). Despite being one of the main drivers of brain dysfunction, for many years international societies stated that increased blood ammonia does not add any diagnostic, staging, or prognostic value for HE in patients with cirrhosis. Nonetheless, in the last decades, evidence is emerging that supports the utility of ammonia for risk stratification, but its role in guiding HE diagnosis, staging, and treatment is unclear and there is equipoise in its use in clinical practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChanarin-Dorfman Syndrome (CDS) is a rare lipid storage disease with ichthyosis, hepatomegaly, myopathy, neuropathy, deafness, and ocular findings. Here, we aim to present an elderly CDS case and highlight the new endocrinological findings. A 66-year-old male patient with cirrhosis was hospitalized for liver transplantation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF