Chronic hepatitis C. New therapeutic strategies.

Background: Aim of this work was to evaluate the early viral decay induced by a daily therapy with alfa-interferon (IFN) and the presence of any synergistic effects of amantadine and ribavirin.

Methods: Twenty patients with a diagnosis of chronic hepatitis C were randomly assigned to receive a course of treatment with: IFN 3MU daily (6 pts); or IFN 3MU daily plus amantadine 200 mg (7 pts): or IFN 3MU daily plus ribavirin 1-1.2 g (7 pts) for 6 months.

Isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) versus laser-assisted ratio analyzer (LARA): a comparative study using two doses of.

This study was carried out to compare the measurements and the diagnostic accuracy of the traditional expensive IRMS and the new economical LARA system using two doses of [13C]urea + two different test meals in patients undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, both before and after anti-Helicobacter treatment. A total of 354 dyspeptic patients underwent endoscopy with gastric biopsies to diagnose H. pylori infection by CLO-test and histology.

Can the MEGX test and serum bile acids improve the prognostic ability of Child-Pugh's score in liver cirrhosis?

Background: Liver transplantation is nowadays the therapeutic option for end-stage liver disease. Correct disease staging is the main step towards improving the timing of listing for liver transplantation so as to avoid premature or late entry. The need for correct prognostic evaluation is due to the limited number of donors and to the increasing number of patients awaiting transplantation.

Chronic liver disease related to hepatitis C virus: age of patients seems to be a determinant of severity independently of viral genotype.

Background: Hepatitis C virus infection accounts for varying severity of chronic liver disease. Clinical manifestations of infection have been related to different virus genotypes, with conflicting results.

Design: We performed a cross-sectional study on a Northern-Italian group of patients with chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma related to hepatitis C virus infection in order to verify the association of different viral strains and the outcomes of viral disease.

Does surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma in HCV cirrhotic patients improve treatment outcome mainly due to better clinical status at diagnosis?

Background/aims: Cirrhotic patients with hepatitis C virus infection are a group at higher risk for hepatocellular carcinoma. Conventional screening programs detect only few early hepatocellular carcinomas that are eligible for radical treatment. Our aim was to compare characteristics of patients, modality of treatment, and outcome in anti-HCV positive cirrhotics with hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosed during follow-up, or incidentally.