A Primary Health Care Program and COVID-19. Impact in Hospital Admissions and Mortality.

Background: Most patients with mild or moderate COVID infection did not require hospital admission, but depending on their personal history, they needed medical supervision. In monitoring these patients in primary care, the design of specific surveillance programs was of great help. Between February 2021 and March 2022, EDCO program was designed in Tenerife, Spain, to telemonitor patients with COVID infection who had at least one vulnerability factor to reduce hospital admissions and mortality.

Ferritin and liver fibrosis among patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection.

Introduction: In chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection there is increased iron absorption leading to iron overload, a fact that may promote ferritin synthesis. Theoretically, increased ferritin should promote ongoing liver fibrosis but disparate results have been described.

Objective: We analyze the behavior of iron metabolism- related variables, comparing them with fibrosis and inflammatory activity in liver biopsy in HCV infected patients.

Adipokines, cytokines and body fat stores in hepatitis C virus liver steatosis.

Aim: To identify patients with or without liver steatosis and its severity in treatment-naïve patients affected by hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

Methods: We included 56 HCV infected patients, and assessed the amount of liver fat by histomorphometry, and its relationships with fat and lean mass at different parts of the body (by densitometry), hormones [insulin, homeostatic model assessment (HOMA)], adipokines (resistin, adiponectin, leptin), and cytokines (tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin-6).

Results: Although the intensity of liver steatosis is related to trunk fat mass and HOMA, 33% of patients showed no liver steatosis, and this finding was not related to body mass index or genotype.

Serum sclerostin in hepatitis C virus infected patients.

Background: Sclerostin inhibits osteoblast functions, differentiations, and survival rates. As an endogenous inhibitor of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, the sclerostin should be related to decreased bone masses, although several studies indicate opposite results. In addition, it may be related to insulin resistances and carbohydrate metabolisms, a relation shared with other markers of bone metabolisms, such as osteocalcin.

Iron and proinflammatory cytokines in chronic hepatitis C virus infection.

Steatohepatitis is a common finding in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. As in other forms of steatohepatitis, oxidative damage may play an outstanding role. However, there are conflicting results relative to the role of iron on hepatic lipogenesis.

Serum sclerostin in alcoholics: a pilot study.

Aims: Sclerostin is an endogenous inhibitor of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway secreted by osteocytes, which inhibits osteoblast function, differentiation and survival. As a consequence, sclerostin tends to decrease bone mass. Alcoholics frequently present osteoporosis, mainly due to decreased bone synthesis.

Bone alterations in hepatitis C virus infected patients.

Background And Aims: Most studies have shown that patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection are affected by osteoporosis. However, liver function impairment and deranged nutrition may both play a role in the bone alterations observed. In some works no osteoporosis was found, and some cases of osteosclerosis have been reported.

Osteopenia in alcoholics: effect of alcohol abstinence.

Aims: The aims of this study were to assess bone mineral density (BMD) and content (BMC), osteocalcin, serum telopeptide, PTH and vitamin D in alcoholics, and to determine if a 6-month period of abstinence leads to changes in these parameters.

Methods: Serum osteocalcin, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), telopeptide (40 patients) and 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D, were measured in 28 controls and 77 alcoholic patients, 48 of whom were evaluated again 6 months later. All patients underwent whole-body assessment of BMD by a Hologic QDR-2000 (Waltham, MA, USA) bone densitometer, at the beginning of the study and 6 months later.

Cytokines and lipid peroxidation in alcoholics with chronic hepatitis C virus infection.

A major cause of liver cirrhosis and hepatocarcinoma is chronic infection by hepatitis C virus. Ethanol consumption is the most significant environmental factor that exacerbates the progression of chronic hepatitis C to liver cirrhosis and hepatocarcinoma, perhaps due to increased cytokine secretion together with increased lipid peroxidation. In this study, we compare the intensity of lipid peroxidation (estimated as malondialdehyde (MDA) serum levels), the antioxidant status, (measured as glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities in red blood cells), and levels of cytokines derived from Th1 cells (such as interferon gamma (IFNG)), Th2 cells (such as interleukin (IL)-4), Th3 cells (such as transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta)), and IL-6, IL-8, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha in patients affected by chronic hepatitis C virus infection, 26 drinkers of alcohol and 40 nondrinkers of alcohol.