Serum leptin in patients with alcoholic liver disease.

Background: The mechanisms by which overweight makes the liver more susceptible to alcoholic liver injury remain to be determined. Therefore, we conducted the following studies to further elucidate the role of leptin in the pathogenesis of steatosis and cirrhosis caused by chronic alcohol consumption in human beings.

Methods: Two-hundred nine consecutive patients with alcoholic liver disease were studied.

Efficacy of infliximab in Crohn's disease. Results of a retrospective multicenter study with a 15-month follow-up.

Objectives: To evaluate prescription practices and response to infliximab treatment for Crohn's disease (CD).

Patients And Methods: The files of CD patients treated with at least one infusion of infliximab treated in gastroenterology units belonging to university teaching hospitals of the Parisian hospitals group (Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) during the year 2000 were analyzed retrospectively.

Results: One hundred and thirty-seven patients (36.

Comparison of outcome in patients with cirrhosis and ascites following treatment with albumin or a synthetic colloid: a randomised controlled pilot trail.

Background: The question of which colloid (albumin or synthetic colloids) used for plasma expansion following paracentesis or other complications requiring fluid loading in patients with cirrhosis remains controversial.

Aims: To compare outcome and hospital-related cost in patients with cirrhosis treated with 20% human albumin with those treated with a synthetic colloid (3.5% polygeline).

Usefulness of routine analysis of ascitic fluid at the time of therapeutic paracentesis in asymptomatic outpatients. Results of a multicenter prospective study.

Aim: The guidelines of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases recommend performing exploratory paracentesis on each patient with cirrhosis and chronic ascites. The aim of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis and culture-negative neutrocytic ascites in a large population of consecutive asymptomatic cirrhotic ascitic ambulatory patients.

Methods: Patients with cirrhosis and tense ascites hospitalized from January to September 2000 in 5 hepatogastroenterology units prospectively underwent an exploratory paracentesis with cytobacteriological, biochemical and bedside inoculation into aerobic and anaerobic blood culture bottles.

Balance between pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines in patients with acute alcoholic hepatitis.

Unlabelled: The ability of endogenous IL-10 to modulate inflammatory response and to limit hepatotoxicity has been shown in several models of liver injury.

Aims: The objectives of this study were to evaluate the relationship between liver disease and the balance between pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines in acute alcoholic hepatitis.

Methods: Twenty-five patients with pure steatosis, 17 with cirrhosis and mild acute alcoholic hepatitis (discriminant function value<32) and 41 patients with cirrhosis and severe acute alcoholic hepatitis (discriminant function value >=32) were studied.

Biomarkers for the prediction of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic alcoholic liver disease.

Background & Aims: The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic use of noninvasive markers of fibrosis in patients with chronic alcoholic liver disease.

Methods: A total of 221 consecutive patients with an alcohol intake of >50 g/day (median, 100 g/day) and available liver biopsy examination and FibroTest FibroSure (FT) results were included prospectively. Fibrosis was assessed blindly on a 5-stage histologic scale similar to that of the METAVIR scoring system.

Mesenteric adenitis and portal vein thrombosis due to Fusobacterium nucleatum.

We report the first description of portal and mesenteric vein thrombosis associated with suppurative mesenteric adenitis in a 71-year-old woman. The bacterium detected in mesenteric lymph nodes was Fusobacterium nucleatum, an anaerobic Gram-negative bacillus. Our patient had a clinical syndrome of pharyngitis and fever preceding portal vein thrombosis.

[Inflammatory bowel disease and latent thrombocythemia: a novel cause of hepatic vein thrombosis?].

It has been suggested in previous studies, that inflammatory bowel disease can induce hepatic vein thrombosis. However, the main weakness of those studies was the lack of extensive screening of prothrombotic factors. We report an unusual association of severe inflammatory bowel disease, hepatic vein thrombosis and latent platelet proliferation disorder.

Early change in bilirubin levels is an important prognostic factor in severe alcoholic hepatitis treated with prednisolone.

Early identification of patients with severe (discriminant function >or=32) biopsy-proven alcoholic hepatitis (AH) who are not responding to corticosteroids would be clinically relevant. Our goal was to develop simple criteria that will help physicians to promptly identify nonresponders to corticosteroids. A total of 238 patients were included.

Corticosteroids improve short-term survival in patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis (AH): individual data analysis of the last three randomized placebo controlled double blind trials of corticosteroids in severe AH.

Background/aims: Controversy surrounding the efficacy of corticosteroids in severe alcoholic hepatitis (AH) persists.

The Aims Of Our Study Were: (a) to analyze individual data of patients with severe AH discriminant function (DF)> or =32 from the last three randomized controlled trials; and (b) to identify the independent prognostic factors associated with short-term survival.

Methods: Individual data were collected from the three principal investigators.

Risk factors of fibrosis in alcohol-induced liver disease.

In patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), age, obesity, and diabetes mellitus are independent predictors of the degree of fibrosis. The relative risk for fibrosis adjusted for sex was also associated with increasing grade of Perls stain. The aim of this study was to determine whether the risk factors for fibrosis described in NASH are also risk factors in alcohol-induced liver disease.