Clinical Indicators of Bone Deterioration in Alcoholic Liver Cirrhosis and Chronic Alcohol Abuse: Looking beyond Bone Fracture Occurrence.

Although previous studies indicated that chronic alcohol abuse (CAA) and alcoholic liver cirrhosis (ALC) are associated with increased bone fragility, understanding bone fragility determinants is still modest in these individuals. We used a comprehensive individualized clinical fracture risk assessment approach (vertebral osteodensitometry, femoral osteodensitometry and geometry, and serum bone turnover biomarkers) to compare adult male patients with ALC who have not previously had femoral or vertebral fractures ( = 39), patients with CAA (without liver cirrhosis, = 78) who have not previously had femoral or vertebral fractures and healthy age- and sex-matched controls ( = 43). Our data suggested that intertrochanteric bone mineral density was significantly lower in ALC and CAA patients than in controls.

Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy: A Case Study of the Rare Onset in the First Trimester.

Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a gestation-specific liver disorder, defined most often as the onset of pruritus, usually from the third trimester of pregnancy, associated with abnormal liver test results and/or increased total serum bile acids and spontaneous relief after delivery. The 21-year-old patient was admitted to our ward in the 11th week of pregnancy due to raised liver enzymes. The first onset of pruritus and jaundice appeared a month before hospitalization.

Evaluating spine micro-architectural texture (via TBS) discriminates major osteoporotic fractures from controls both as well as and independent of site matched BMD: the Eastern European TBS study.

The aim of the study was to assess the clinical performance of the model combining areal bone mineral density (aBMD) at spine and microarchitecural texture (TBS) for the detection of the osteoporotic fracture. The Eastern European Study is a multicenter study (Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine) evaluating the role of TBS in routine clinical practice as a complement to aBMD. All scans were acquired on Hologic Discovery and GE Prodigy densitometers in a routine clinical manner.

Primary amyloidosis presenting with cholestasis and hyperkinetic portal hypertension.

Amyloidosis is not a single disease, but a series of diseases in which there is extracellular deposition of a protein in an abnormal fibrillar form. We report a 48-year old woman with subicteric coloration of scleras and hepatomegaly. Functional liver tests evidenced a high level of alkaline phosphatase and serum gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase with mild increase of bilirubin level.

[Epoprostenol in the treatment of portopulmonary hypertension].

Primary or non-hemodynamic pulmonary hypertension is characterized by the increased pulmonary arterial pressure, higher than 3.32 kPa, and normal pulmonary capillary pressure less than 1.99 kPa.