Publications by authors named "Hofer B"
Background: Portal hypertension (PH) resulting from static and dynamic intrahepatic changes drives liver-related complications even after removing the underlying aetiological factor.
Objective: We investigated the impact of inflammation on the dynamic component of PH during disease regression in animal models of toxin-induced cirrhosis and patients with alcohol-related cirrhosis.
Methods: In mice, cirrhosis was induced via toxin application for 12 weeks followed by toxin-withdrawal allowing for one or 2 weeks of regression.
Current guidelines recommend reflex testing for hepatitis D virus (HDV) coinfection in hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive patients over risk-factor based screening. We aimed to evaluate the feasibility and diagnostic yield of reflex anti-HDV testing at a Central European tertiary care center. We retrospectively included 560 consecutive patients who had a recorded (first) positive HBsAg test result at the Vienna General Hospital between 2018 and 2022.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground/objectives: Research suggests that metalinguistic and cognitive/attentional-control processes are key variables in literacy development in young learners. Interactions between these variables are complex, and this complexity is increased in multilingual learners. With data on the interplay between metalinguistic and cognitive awareness, literacy, and multilingualism being scarce, it is far from clear how these variables interact and how they impact the individual child.
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- The LiverRisk score is a proposed blood test aimed at estimating liver stiffness and identifying patients at risk for compensated advanced chronic liver disease (cACLD) and liver-related events without prior known liver issues.
- In a study involving nearly 7,500 patients, the score's diagnostic performance was evaluated against established methods like FIB-4 and APRI, revealing that while it moderately correlates with liver stiffness measurements, it tends to underestimate them.
- Although the LiverRisk score demonstrated decent accuracy for predicting cACLD and hepatic decompensation, its limitations include a low negative predictive value, indicating it might not effectively rule out disease in some patients.
Article Synopsis
- Cirrhosis creates a proinflammatory environment, and the study aims to analyze specific inflammation patterns across various causes of compensated cirrhosis in both animal models and human patients.
- In rat models, inflammation differed based on the cirrhosis cause, with choline-deficient high-fat diet rats showing the highest proinflammatory gene expression, while in humans, different liver diseases exhibited varying levels of inflammatory markers.
- Despite common upregulation of proinflammatory pathways in all types of liver disease, the impact on fibrosis and portal hypertension varied based on the specific etiology of the disease.
Background And Aims: We aimed to characterise insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) signalling in patients with advanced chronic liver disease (ACLD).
Methods: Consecutive patients undergoing hepatic venous pressure gradient [HVPG] measurement were prospectively included. Clinical stages were defined as follows: probable ACLD (pACLD): liver stiffness ≥10 kPa and HVPG ≤5 mmHg, S0: mild PH (HVPG 6-9 mmHg), S1: clinically significant PH (CSPH), S2: CSPH with varices, S3: past variceal bleeding, S4: past/current non-bleeding hepatic decompensation and S5: further decompensation.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates how age and sex impact the prevalence and burden of primary headaches in children and adolescents at a pediatric headache center in Germany from 2015 to 2022.
- A total of 652 patients aged 3 to 18 were analyzed, revealing that nearly 60% were female, with the most common headache types being episodic migraine without aura and mixed-type headaches.
- Results indicate that headaches severely affected approximately 16% of children under 14 and increased to about 33% in adolescents, particularly impacting teenage girls.
Intervalley excitons with electron and hole wavefunctions residing in different valleys determine the long-range transport and dynamics observed in many semiconductors. However, these excitons with vanishing oscillator strength do not directly couple to light and, hence, remain largely unstudied. Here, we develop a simple nanomechanical technique to control the energy hierarchy of valleys via their contrasting response to mechanical strain.
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- The study investigates the role of histamine in advanced chronic liver disease (ACLD) and its potential as a prognostic marker.
- It includes 251 patients with ACLD, finding that higher plasma histamine levels correlate with circulatory dysfunction, but levels do not significantly vary across different stages of liver disease.
- Elevated histamine levels are independently associated with an increased risk of acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) or liver-related death over a median follow-up of 29.2 months.
Article Synopsis
- - The study investigated zinc and selenium deficiency in 309 patients with advanced chronic liver disease (ACLD) and found that 73% were deficient in zinc and 63% in selenium, indicating a high prevalence of these deficiencies in this population.
- - It was observed that patients with decompensated ACLD had significantly lower levels of both trace elements compared to those with compensated ACLD, and there were strong correlations between zinc/selenium levels and disease severity indicators like MELD and HVPG.
- - Low levels of zinc and selenium were independently associated with worsening liver-related events, including hepatic decompensation and liver-related death, suggesting that future research should explore the benefits of zinc/selenium supplementation for these patients.
Background: Pediatric headache is an increasing medical problem that has adverse effects on children's quality of life, academic performance, and social functioning. Children with primary headaches exhibit enhanced sensory sensitivity compared to their healthy peers. However, comprehensive investigations including multimodal sensory sensitivity assessment are lacking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Aims: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a leading cause of advanced chronic liver disease (ACLD). Portal hypertension drives hepatic decompensation and is best diagnosed by hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) measurement. Here, we investigate the prognostic value of HVPG in MASLD-related compensated ACLD (MASLD-cACLD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Obesity impacts the diagnostic accuracy of shear wave elastography (SWE). A deep abdominal ultrasound transducer (DAX) capable of point (pSWE) and two-dimensional (2D)-SWE has recently been introduced to address this issue.
Methods: We performed a prospective study in a cohort of mostly patients with obesity undergoing liver biopsy with a high prevalence of metabolic dysfunction-associate steatotic liver disease (MASLD).
Background And Aims: The prognostic performance of von Willebrand factor (VWF) may vary across clinical stages of advanced chronic liver disease (ACLD). Therefore, we investigated the evolution of VWF and other biomarkers throughout the full ACLD spectrum and evaluated their stage-specific prognostic utility.
Methods: We retrospectively included Viennese ACLD patients with available information on hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG), C-reactive protein (CRP)/VWF levels and outcomes.
Background & Aims: Non-invasive tests (NITs) for clinically significant portal hypertension (CSPH) require validation in patients with hepatitis D virus (HDV)-related compensated advanced chronic liver disease (cACLD). Therefore, we aimed to validate existing NIT algorithms for CSPH in this context.
Methods: Patients with HDV-cACLD (LSM ≥10 kPa or histological METAVIR F3/F4 fibrosis) who underwent paired HVPG and NIT assessment at Medical University of Vienna or Hannover Medical School between 2013 and 2023 were retrospectively included.
Persistent liver injury triggers a fibrogenic program that causes pathologic remodeling of the hepatic microenvironment (i.e., liver fibrosis) and portal hypertension.
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- The study aimed to create a blood-based algorithm using FIB-4 and VITRO to identify compensated advanced chronic liver disease (cACLD) and clinically significant portal hypertension (CSPH) in patients, especially in settings without access to liver stiffness measurements.
- A total of 6,143 patients were analyzed; results showed that both LSM and FIB-4 were effective in predicting hepatic decompensation, with a notable risk difference based on FIB-4 levels (≥ 1.75 significantly increasing risk).
- In a separate cohort, VITRO demonstrated strong diagnostic performance for CSPH, comparable to other established methods, suggesting a reliable means to identify patients at risk for liver-related complications.
Article Synopsis
- The researchers studied how liver stiffness measurement (LSM) can help predict serious health problems and death in people with alcohol-related liver disease (ALD).
- They checked the liver stiffness of patients from Denmark and Austria over about two years to see changes and their effects on health.
- The results showed that changes in liver stiffness were really good at predicting who might get worse health and who might die, helping doctors know who needs more care.