Direct-Acting Antivirals in the Treatment of Hepatitis C Virus Recurrence after Liver Transplantation: Real-life Experience in a Mexican Cohort.

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the most frequent causes of liver transplantation (LT) worldwide. Patients with HCV viremia at the time of LT universally develop recurrent HCV in the allograft, leading to accelerated fibrosis and graft loss. Treatment with direct-acting antivirals (DAA) is highly effective and safe in this population.

PPIs are not associated with a lower incidence of portal-hypertension-related bleeding in cirrhosis.

Aim: To determine if proton pump inhibitor use in cirrhotic patients with endoscopic findings of portal hypertension is associated with a lower frequency of gastrointestinal bleeding.

Methods: Patients with cirrhosis and endoscopic findings related to portal hypertension, receiving or not receiving proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy, were included retrospectively. We assigned patients to two groups: group 1 patients underwent PPI therapy and group 2 patients did not undergo PPI therapy.

Efficacy of triple therapy with thymalfasin, peginterferon alpha-2a, and ribavirin for the treatment of hispanic chronic HCV nonresponders.

Background/aims: Thymalfasin has shown efficacy in the treatment of chronic HCV infection. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of triple therapy with thymalfasin, peginterferon alpha-2a (PEG-IFN alpha-2a), and ribavirin in Hispanic patients with chronic viral hepatitis C who were nonresponders to prior treatment with interferon alfa (IFN-alpha)/ribavirin.

Methods: In this open-label study, 40 subjects received thymalfasin (1.

AST to platelet ratio index (APRI) for the noninvasive evaluation of liver fibrosis.

Liver biopsy is the recognized gold standard for liver fibrosis staging. The aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI) has been proposed as a noninvasive and readily available tool for the assessment of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C (CHC). This study aimed to validate, in a Mexican tertiary health care setting, the diagnostic usefulness of APRI in CHC, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and autoimmune hepatitis (AIH).

Prevalence of metabolic syndrome, obesity and diabetes type 2 in cryptogenic cirrhosis.

Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS), obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in a group of Mexican Mestizo patients with cryptogenic cirrhosis (CC) and to compare this group with patients with cirrhosis secondary to other causes (disease controls).

Methods: Patients with CC, diagnosed between January, 1990 and April, 2005, were included in a retrospective study. Patients with cirrhosis caused by chronic hepatitis C, alcohol abuse or autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) served as disease controls.

Non-alcoholic fatty-liver disease in pediatric populations.

The increasing prevalence of obesity is not only observed in adults. Children are affected by obesity and related diseases, such as chronic liver disease, more frequently than in the past. Nonalcoholic fatty-liver disease is an important cause of chronic liver disease and in the near future will become important worldwide.

Insulin sensitizers in treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: Systematic review.

Aim: To summarize the evidence available for the clinical effectiveness of insulin sensitizers in the treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) systematically.

Methods: Relevant articles were located using computer-assisted searches of Medline (1966-March 2006), EMBASE (1988-March 2006), CINAHL (1982-March 2003), Educational Resource Information Center (1966-March 2006), Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (1967-March 2006), Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (1994-2006), dissertations in ProQuest and FirstSearch databases. Manual searches were made in the abstracts from meetings of the American Gastroenterological Association (1999-2006), and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (2003-2005).

Efficacy of oral L-ornithine-L-aspartate in cirrhotic patients with hyperammonemic hepatic encephalopathy. Results of a randomized, lactulose-controlled study.

Despite steady progress in therapeutics of liver disease, portal systemic encephalopathy remains to be a great challenge for clinicians because of the heterogeneity of neuropsychiatric symptoms, multiple risk factors and complexity on achieving a sustained response. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of L-Ornithin, L-Aspartate versus lactulose in Mexican patients with hyperammonemic hepatic encephalopathy. A total of 20 patients were randomly allocated to receive either lactulose(n = 10) or L-ornithine - L-aspartate (n = 10) for 2 weeks.

[Secondary non-Hodgkin's B-cell lymphoma involving the breast: radiologic imaging].

Secondary lymphomas involving the breast, although uncommon, represent the largest group of metastasic tumors to the breast. Primary non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs) of the breast are also rare, accounting for 1.7% to 2.

[Comparison of two different vaccination schemes against Hepatitis A and B in Mexican children and adolescents].

Background: Development of multiple antigens in combined vaccines offers the advantages of reducing costs, increasing compliance and provides dual protection. Hepatitis A is an endemic disease in Mexico and hepatitis B, notwithstanding low prevalence, confers risk of progression to cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and high medical costs in consequence.

Objective: Determine immunogenicity and reactogenicity of a combined vaccine when compared with use of conventional vaccines simultaneously.

Etiology of liver cirrhosis in Mexico.

Background: In the last decades it has been suggested that the main cause of liver cirrhosis in Mexico is alcohol. Currently in Western countries hepatitis C virus stage liver disease and liver transplantation. In Mexico, we have no data relative to the etiology of liver cirrhosis.

Viral kinetics in genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C patients during therapy with 2 different doses of peginterferon alfa-2b plus ribavirin.

Pegylated interferon (peginterferon) alfa-2b plus ribavirin achieves a higher sustained response rate in patients with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) than standard combination therapy. This study evaluated HCV kinetics throughout therapy with 2 doses of peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin in 55 patients. Twenty-eight patients were randomized to receive a high once-weekly dose of peginterferon alfa-2b (3 microg/kg for 1 week, 1.