Maria Guido

..The results of the first controlled trial with PEG-IFN-α2a plus ribavirin are a step towards an appropriate treatment for these children...

..This paper aims to provide a systematic approach to the interpretation of liver biopsies obtained in cases of chronic viral hepatitis, with the hope of helping general pathologists in their diagnostic practice...

..In chronic viral hepatitis, liver biopsy is performed for assessing disease activity and fibrosis. In this study, we evaluated the impact of the size of liver biopsy on the grading and staging...

..Integrating earlier experience with more recently produced data indicates that a biopsy sample 2 cm or more in length containing at least 11 complete portal tracts should be reliable for grading and staging chronic viral hepatitis...

..The final diagnosis may be a challenge in patients with recurrent hepatitis C, and requires careful clinical and pathologic assessment...

..We retrospectively investigated the impact of treatment in a large cohort of children with chronic hepatitis C over the past 20 years...

..The natural course of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) in children is not well understood. The aim of this study was to assess the long-term course of CHC in a large sample of otherwise healthy children...

..The natural history of chronic hepatitis C acquired in infancy is not well understood. The progression of fibrosis was analyzed in untreated children with chronic hepatitis C virus infection and no other hepatotoxic cofactors...

..In conclusion, the information obtainable from splanchnic Doppler parameters can be used to monitor the progression of liver fibrosis in transplant patients with HCV reinfection...

..Conclusion: Host genetics defined by CRS predict fibrosis progression in males with initially mild chronic hepatitis C and may become a useful parameter for prognostic evaluation and treatment decision...

..To assess the performance of several non-invasive markers and of our recently proposed stepwise combination algorithms to diagnose significant fibrosis (F > or = 2 by METAVIR) and cirrhosis (F4 by METAVIR) in chronic hepatitis B (CHB)...

..MNi/BE formation may result in activation of the p53-mediated cell cycle checkpoint...

..This may reflect its metabolic rather than viral origin and raise new issues in the management of children with hepatitis C...

..On the basis of our data, TTV does not seem to cause liver damage following LT, although larger studies with a long-term follow up are needed to confirm these findings...

..The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical characteristics and the long-term outcome of chronic hepatitis C in a cohort of Caucasian children cured of pediatric malignancy...

..Combination therapy with interferon and ribavirin affects the tissue expression of TGF-beta-1 and NF-kappaB and favors metalloproteinase activity, and may thereby modulate hepatic fibrogenetic events...

..Long-term monitoring is important, as is counseling on cofactors of liver damage, such as alcohol and drug abuse...

..Beyond these criteria, however, a significant proportion of patients with a good HCC biological profile had an acceptable risk of recurrence...

..CONCLUSION: SAFE biopsy is a rational and validated method for staging liver fibrosis in hepatitis C with a marked reduction in the need for liver biopsy. It is an attractive tool for large-scale screening of HCV carriers...

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..Whether autoimmunity may contribute to liver damage in a subgroup of patients with more severe liver disease, high LKM1 titers, and reactivity to CYP2D6 is a question deserving further investigation...

..In fact, the histological picture in this particular case may suggest the potential for NL recovery after INH-related FHF...

..The endocannabinoid system (EC) has emerged as a crucial mediator in a variety of pathophysiological conditions...

..To assess whether a correlation exists between oxidative DNA damage occurring in chronic HCV-related hepatitis and expression levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, TGF-alpha and c-myc...

..Future prospects include the possibility of antifibrotic therapy to prevent fibrosis or favor its degradation...

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..CONCLUSIONS: Stepwise combination of non-invasive markers of liver fibrosis improves the diagnostic performance in chronic hepatitis C. Need for liver biopsy is reduced by 50-70% but cannot be completely avoided...

..CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated the in vitro and in vivo efficacy of combined retroviral-mediated gene therapy for HCC, with significant systemic therapeutic efficacy in vivo...

..To assess the effect of long-term maintenance of steroids on HCV recurrence after liver transplantation (LT), that is still controversial, a prospective multicentre trial was conducted at the centres of Bologna and Padua, Italy...

..The combination of a female recipient receiving an older graft emerged as a strong risk factor for a severe recurrence...

..A discussion of differential diagnosis is also presented...

..Conversely, the higher rates of fibrosis observed in older patients suggest the possibility of an insidious progression of HCV-associated liver disease...

..Breast metastases of mucosal/submucosal layers of the esophagus are extremely rare: esophageal involvement is usually part of a mediastinal carcinosis...

..This was associated and correlated with a balance of pro- and antiapoptotic proteins favoring survival rather than apoptosis, suggesting a major role of IGF1 system in promoting cholangiocyte survival...

..This analysis of the largest collection of liver biopsies reported to date in patients receiving deferiprone demonstrates no evidence of deferiprone-induced progression of hepatic fibrosis during long-term therapy...