An optimized short-term steroid therapy for chronic drug-induced liver injury: A prospective randomized clinical trial.

Background And Aims: The use of corticosteroids in chronic drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is an important issue. Our previous randomized controlled trial showed that patients with chronic DILI benefited from a 48-week steroid stepwise reduction (SSR) regimen. However, it remains unclear whether a shorter course of therapy can achieve similar efficacy.

Corticosteroid plus glycyrrhizin therapy for chronic drug- or herb-induced liver injury achieves biochemical and histological improvements: a randomised open-label trial.

Background: Treatment of chronic drug-induced liver injury (DILI) or herb-induced liver injury(HILI) is an important and unresolved challenge. There is no consensus regarding the indications for corticosteroids for chronic DILI/HILI.

Aims: To investigate the efficacy and safety of corticosteroid plus glycyrrhizin for patients with chronic DILI/HILI.

Hepatic Histopathology Among Excessive Drinkers Without Advanced Liver Disease.

Aims: Alcohol-associated liver disease represents a spectrum of histopathological changes from steatosis to advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis. The major goals of this retrospective study were to characterize the histologic features in patients with excessive alcohol use who presented with an abnormal hepatic panel and/or abnormal radiographic imaging and did not meet the clinical diagnosis of alcoholic hepatitis or cirrhosis.

Methods: We performed a retrospective study to describe hepatic histology of 62 and 83 excessive drinkers with normal and abnormal serum aspartate transaminase, respectively.

Plasma levels of soluble ST2, but not IL-33, correlate with the severity of alcoholic liver disease.

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is a complication that is a burden on global health and economy. Interleukin-33 (IL-33) is a newly identified member of the IL-1 cytokine family and is released as an "alarmin" during inflammation. Soluble suppression of tumourigenicity 2 (sST2), an IL-33 decoy receptor, has been reported as a new biomarker for the severity of systemic and highly inflammatory diseases.

Association Between Aldehyde Dehydrogenase 2 Glu504Lys Polymorphism and Alcoholic Liver Disease.

Background: Only a subset of patients with excessive alcohol use develop alcoholic liver disease (ALD), though the exact mechanism is not completely understood. Once ingested, alcohol is metabolized by 2 key oxidative enzymes, alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH). There are 2 major ALDH isoforms, cytosolic and mitochondrial, encoded by the aldehyde ALDH1 and ALDH2 genes, respectively.

Changes in Etiologies of Hospitalized Patients with Liver Cirrhosis in Beijing 302 Hospital from 2002 to 2013.

Background: Over the last 20 years, the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in China has decreased gradually due to the application of a national HBV vaccination program. In contrast, the prevalence of alcoholic liver disease (ALD), nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, autoimmune liver disease, and drug-induced liver injury has markedly increased.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of 82,562 hospitalized patients diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in Beijing 302 Hospital from 2002 to 2013.

Disease spectrum of alcoholic liver disease in Beijing 302 Hospital from 2002 to 2013: A large tertiary referral hospital experience from 7422 patients.

Alcohol consumption in China has substantially increased over the last 3 decades and the number of patients with alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is rising at an alarming rate. However, accurate and representative data on time trends in its hospitalization rates are not available. The aim of this study is to assess the current status and burden of ALD in China by analyzing the data from a large tertiary referral hospital, Beijing 302 Hospital.

Epidemiologic characteristics, clinical manifestations, and risk factors of 139 patients with Ebola virus disease in western Sierra Leone.

Objective: We aimed to fully describe epidemiologic characteristics, clinical manifestations, and clinical outcomes of Ebola virus disease (EVD), as well as detect independent factors significantly associated with mortality of the disease.

Methods: One hundred thirty-nine confirmed EVD patients enrolled at the JUI Holding and Treatment Centre in western Sierra Leone between November 15, 2014, and January 18, 2015, and demographic and clinical data were retrospectively collected and analyzed.

Results: The median age of investigated patients was 29 years and 55.

Changes of four common non-infectious liver diseases for the hospitalized patients in Beijing 302 hospital from 2002 to 2013.

The implementation of a hepatitis B vaccination program in China has led to a significant decline in the prevalence and incidence of liver diseases secondary to hepatitis B virus over the past two decades. With recent changes in the economy and increases in average incomes in China during the same period, there has been a rapid rise in per capita alcohol consumption and an epidemic of obesity. We hypothesized that the burden of liver diseases in China has shifted from infectious to non-infectious etiologies.

Evolution and prognosis of breast osteosarcoma: A case report.

Breast osteosarcoma is a rare malignancy of unknown etiology, with no standard adjuvant treatment at present. The prognosis of the disease is poor, and it has a high propensity for recurrence and metastasis. The current report presents the case of a 52-year-old woman, in whom adenomyoepithelioma gradually developed into breast osteosarcoma following three separate surgeries.

Evidence chain-based causality identification in herb-induced liver injury: exemplification of a well-known liver-restorative herb Polygonum multiflorum.

Herbal medicines have recently been recognized as the second most common cause of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) in the United States. However, reliable methods to identify the DILI causality of some herbs, such as Heshouwu (dried root of Polygonum multiflorum), remain lacking. In this study, a total of 12 307 inpatients with liver dysfunction and 147 literature-reported cases of Heshouwu DILI were screened.

Prognostic Analysis of Patients with Ebola Virus Disease.

Background: The Ebola virus causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated. However, factors affecting the survival of the disease remain unclear. Here, we investigated the prognostic factors of Ebola virus disease (EVD) through various statistical models.

Study on risk factors for severe hand, foot and mouth disease in China.

Background: Epidemics of HFMD are elevated every year globally, especially in mainland China. The disease now presents as an increasing threat to public health worldwide.

Methods: Five hundred and seventy-one EV71-infected HFMD patients in Beijing You'an Hospital were grouped by disease severity: Mild (no severe complication) (n=221), and Severe group (complicated with brainstem encephalitis (BE), and/or pulmonary edema (PE) (n=350)).

Combination therapy of low-dose of PegIFNa-2a and ribavirin for patients with HCV-infected decompensated cirrhosis.

Background/aims: This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of low-dose PEGylated interferon (PEG-IFN) a-2a combined with standard of care ribavirin (RBV). The therapy was administered to patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) with decompensated cirrhosis who underwent splenectomy or partial splenic artery embolization.

Methodology: A total of 106 patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis with chronic HCV infection were subjected to splenectomy (n = 89) or partial spleen artery embolization (n = 17) without the possibility of starting or continuing PEG-IFN and RBV because of neutropenia and/or thrombocytopenia.