Jayant A Talwalkar

..Three of the four patients had drug-related adverse events with fluoxetine. In this study, fluoxetine did not improve fatigue in PBC and was associated with adverse events...

..Liver transplantation remains the only successful treatment option for patients with advanced liver disease from PSC. A diagnosis of PSC should be considered among individuals with IBD and elevated serum liver biochemical tests...

..In this article, a number of hypothetical patient-based cases drawn from the authors' experiences are utilized to illustrate these issues...

..Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is an immunosuppressive medication that inhibits T and B lymphocyte proliferation. The aim of this investigation was to determine the safety and estimated efficacy of MMF in patients with PBC...

..The evidence-based medicine concepts have been expanded from previous articles, and examples from the hepatology literature have been used...

..This article will attempt to highlight the potential for emerging biomarkers to serve as end points in clinical studies that target salient features of hepatic fibrogenesis...

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..To determine the level of association between minimal listing criteria (MLC) recognition and outcomes associated with waiting list registration for liver transplantation (LT)...

..Results from a pilot investigation with tacrolimus for primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) demonstrated biochemical improvement without excessive drug toxicity. To date, no confirmatory study has been performed...

..Recently, several economic analyses have been developed to answer these questions and identify gasps in knowledge. This article provides an overview of results from these studies and explores areas in need of future investigation...

..As a result, the ability to plan for disease management strategies in AIH that require the allocation of scarce resources will be feasible...

..hepatology 2007.)...

..2) was associated with the treatment. Fatigue and health-related quality of life scores during treatment demonstrated a trend toward improvement. Moexipril was not clinically beneficial to PBC patients responding suboptimally to UDCA...

..In conclusion, MMF does not appear to have clinically important benefits for PSC despite being tolerated by most patients. The results of this pilot study do not support further study of MMF as a single agent in the treatment of PSC...

..No significant risk reduction in developing pruritus with UDCA therapy was observed compared to placebo-treated patients. The long-term administration of rifampin for refractory pruritus is associated with occasional hepatotoxicity...

..Patients with PBC should receive ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA); the role of and response to additional immunosuppressive therapy are unknown when AIH overlaps PBC...

..CONCLUSION: Abdominal CT as the initial screening test for varices could be cost-effective. CT also permits evaluation of extra-luminal pathology that impacts management...

..In conclusion, although occasional patients appear to have stable disease on long-acting octreotide therapy, overall the beneficial response in terms of time to tumor progression and survival is limited...

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..The purposes of this study were to determine the feasibility of measuring spleen stiffness with MR elastography and to prospectively test the technique in healthy volunteers and in patients with compensated liver disease...

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..Applicability of the revised IAHG scoring system, however, remains questionable, as nearly 20% of PBC patients will be classified with probable AIH overlap...

..In this short period of treatment, UDCA was not associated with improved patient and graft survival compared to untreated patients...

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..The strong correlation between gallbladder dysplasia/adenocarcinoma and bile duct dysplasia/CC supports the concept of a neoplastic "field effect" along the intrahepatic and extrahepatic biliary tract in PSC...

..The aim of this study was to determine the risk factors for postoperative mortality in patients with cirrhosis...

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..Despite advances in understanding of the disease, it remains one of the major indications for liver transplantation worldwide...

..30 US dollars would be required. In conclusion, MRC has comparable accuracy to ERCP and results in cost savings when used as the initial test strategy for diagnosing PSC...

..Clinical features, particularly diabetes, obesity, and older age, can aid in stratifying patients at risk for advanced fibrosis but are not sufficiently accurate to replace liver biopsy...

..Steady technical progress in developing practical protocols for applying MRE in the abdomen and the pelvis provides opportunities to explore many other potential applications of this emerging technology...

..The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential value of MR elastography (MRE) in the characterization of solid liver tumors...

..The detection of significant fibrosis is more accurate for these patients versus patients whose native liver is chronically infected with HCV...

..Only histological examination can establish the diagnosis of NASH, grade its severity, determine the prognosis and guide treatment...

..We conclude that early testing of skin biopsy specimens using fluorescent in situ hybridization in sex-mismatched patients with orthotopic liver transplantation can serve as an early diagnostic tool for graft-versus-host disease...

..Medicare provides a hospice benefit for patients with ESLD, and referral to a hospice is appropriate for patients with an expected survival of 6 months or less...

..Additional diagnostic techniques based on cytological advances, genomics, and proteomics are needed for the diagnosis and staging of this highly malignant neoplasm...

..The aim of our study was to examine the influence of antidepressant treatment and whether this improves the likelihood of completing therapy...

..The aims of this study were to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic accuracy studies comparing ultrasound-based transient elastography with liver biopsy for hepatic fibrosis...

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..We documented the frequency of large spontaneous portosystemic shunts in patients with moderate or severe portopulmonary hypertension (POPH) and determined the association between large shunts and response to treatment...

..These results contribute to defining the natural course and prognosis of decompensated HCV-related cirrhosis...

..CD should be considered in all patients diagnosed with autoimmune cholangitis as a gluten-free diet may avoid the need for immunosuppressive therapy in affected patients...

..03). Further prospective studies are needed to examine this association in greater detail to provide targeted treatment for alcoholism both before and after liver transplantation...

..Therefore, we sought to describe the frequency, clinical spectrum, and outcomes among patients with PBC and a concomitant diagnosis of lymphoma...