Publications by authors named "Kristina R Chacko"

Poor metabolic health and obesity have significant impacts on the outcomes of patients suffering from chronic liver disease, particularly those with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. Patients with such comorbidities who require liver transplant evaluation for advancing liver disease or liver failure require special consideration due to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, renal dysfunction, sarcopenic obesity, and cancer. Those who have had a history of prior bariatric surgery pose specific anatomical constraints and may also be at increased risk of alcohol use disorder.

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Purpose: To determine the incidence of newly diagnosed liver disorders (LD) up to 3.5-year post-acute COVID-19, and risk factors associated with new LD.

Methods: We analyzed 54,699 COVID-19 patients and 1,409,547 non-COVID-19 controls from March-11-2020 to Jan-03-2023.

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Background And Aims: Alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH) poses significant short-term mortality. Existing prognostic models lack precision for 90-day mortality. Utilizing artificial intelligence in a global cohort, we sought to derive and validate an enhanced prognostic model.

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Background & Aims: Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score better predicts mortality in alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH) but could underestimate severity in women and malnourished patients. Using a global cohort, we assessed the ability of the MELD 3.0 score to predict short-term mortality in AH.

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Aim: To assess the role of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF) in the patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis (SAH) using real world experience in the United States.

Background: There are few effective treatments for severe alcoholic hepatitis, which has a significant fatality rate. GCSF has been associated with improved survival in a small number of Indian studies, while there is a dearth of information from other parts of the globe.

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Background & Aims: Corticosteroids are the only effective therapy for severe alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH), defined by a model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score >20. However, there are patients who may be too sick to benefit from therapy. Herein, we aimed to identify the range of MELD scores within which steroids are effective for AH.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study compared the morbidity profiles of patients undergoing liver transplants for alcoholic hepatitis versus alcoholic cirrhosis, focusing on outcomes at 30 days and 1 year post-surgery.
  • Patients with alcoholic hepatitis were younger and had worse functional scores pre-transplant, but the cirrhosis group had a higher rate of 30-day reoperations.
  • Despite differences in initial health status and surgical complications, both groups showed similar long-term outcomes regarding graft survival and other complications.
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Liver disease from excessive alcohol consumption is an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. There is a clear relationship between alcohol and a variety of health and socioeconomic problems. According to the World Health Organization, 3.

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Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an important cause of liver disease that is often associated with the metabolic syndrome. There is a growing awareness that extrahepatic complications occur in individuals with NAFLD, especially an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Development of diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, colorectal cancer, and endocrinopathies has been linked to NAFLD.

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Daclatasvir (DCV) is a potent, pangenotypic nonstructural protein 5A inhibitor with demonstrated antiviral efficacy when combined with sofosbuvir (SOF) or simeprevir (SMV) with or without ribavirin (RBV) in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Herein, we report efficacy and safety data for DCV-based all-oral antiviral therapy in liver transplantation (LT) recipients with severe recurrent HCV. DCV at 60 mg/day was administered for up to 24 weeks as part of a compassionate use protocol.

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This article discusses direct-acting antiviral agents that target hepatitis C virus replication, their mechanism of action, strengths, and weaknesses. In addition, varying strategies using combinations of these agents are discussed.

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Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a multifactorial neuropsychiatric disease that affects patients with cirrhosis. We review the clinical impact, pathogenesis, evaluation, management, and prevention of overt HE in patients with cirrhosis. Articles published between January 1960 and November 2012 were acquired through a MEDLINE search of different combinations of the terms hepatic encephalopathy, pathophysiology, treatment, prophylaxis, prevention, prognosis, and recurrence.

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