Hepatic sinusoidal obstruction syndrome is frequently linked to high-dose chemotherapy/total-body irradiation in recipients of haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, long-term use of azathioprine after organ transplantation and other chemotherapeutic agents. The incidence of hepatic sinusoidal obstruction syndrome varies from 0% to 70%, and is decreasing. Disease risk is higher in patients with malignancies, hepatitis C virus infection, those who present late, when norethisterone is used to prevent menstruation, and when broad-spectrum antibiotics and antifungals are used during and after the conditioning therapy. Hepatic sinusoidal obstruction syndrome presents with tender hepatomegaly, hyperbilirubinaemia and ascites, and diagnosis is mainly clinical (Seattle and Baltimore Criteria). Imaging excludes biliary obstruction and malignancy, but cannot establish accurate diagnosis. Hepatic sinusoidal obstruction syndrome may be prevented by avoiding the highest risk regimens, using non-myelo-ablative regimens, and reducing total-body irradiation dose. Treatment is largely symptomatic and supportive, because 70-80% of patients recover spontaneously. Tissue plasminogen activator plus heparin improves outcome in <30% of cases. Defibrotide, a polydeoxyribonucleotide, is showing encouraging results. Transjugular intrahepatic porto-systemic shunt relieves ascites, but does not improve outcome. Liver transplantation may be an option in the absence of malignancy. Prognosis is variable and depends on disease severity, aetiology and associated conditions. Death is most commonly caused by renal or cardiopulmonary failure.

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ObjectivesThe aim of the work was to assess the level of copeptin as a surrogate marker predicting the severity of liver diseases and its major complications.Patients and methodsThis was a cross-sectional study that included 40 patients and 10 controls and was performed in Tanta University Hospital between June 2016 and November 2016. The studied cases were divided into five groups: group I (10 patients): compensated cirrhosis; group II (10 patients): cirrhosis with gastrointestinal hemorrhage due to portal hypertension; group III (10 patients): cirrhosis with hepatorenal syndrome; group IV (10 patients): cirrhosis with liver cell failure; and group V (10 controls): normal healthy individuals.ResultsRegarding serum copeptin in the studied groups, copeptin showed a significant decrease in group I vs group II‚ group I vs group III, and group I vs group IV; and there was a significant increase in group II vs group III‚ group II vs group IV‚ group II vs control‚ group III vs control, and group IV vs control. No significance was detected between group I vs control and group III vs group IV.ConclusionsCopeptin is a novel marker for the determination of prognosis of liver cirrhosis. There is significant association between serum level of copeptin and complications of liver cirrhosis.

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In this paper, a miniaturized broadband dielectric spectroscopy system is presented for permittivity detection, chemical sensing, and mixture characterization for 1-8-GHz frequency range. A sensing capacitor exposed to the material under test (MUT) is part of a true time-delay (TTD) cell excited by a microwave signal at the sensing frequency of interest. The phase shift of the microwave signal at the output of the TTD cell compared to its input is a measure of the permittivity of MUTs. For wideband and accurate sensing, TTD cells are cascaded in a reconfigurable fashion to increase the detected phase shift, especially at low frequencies. TTD cells are designed to detect permittivities within the range of 1-30 considering nonideal effects, such as electromagnetic coupling between adjacent TTD cells. Calibration using reference liquids is applied to the fabricated sensor and sensor characteristics are extracted. Permittivity detection of organic chemicals is performed in the range of 1-8 GHz with an error less than 2%. The measured permittivities in the 1-8-GHz range are used to estimate the sub-1-GHz permittivities of MUTs using extrapolation. The sensing system is also used for mixture characterization to find the mixing ratios in binary mixtures with an accuracy of 1%.