No abstract

PSE allowed the safe use of peg-IFN plus ribavirin in HCV cirrhotic patients with severe cytopenias who otherwise would never have been treated. The rate of SVR was 38%.

In HCV LT patients with chronic graft dysfunction and cholestasis the improvement in the liver function following PSE might be due to the reversal of an undiagnosed splenic artery steal syndrome related to chronic hypersplenism masked by HCV recurrence.

No abstract

By using a method of electrophoresis separation, the authors determined the relative values of each one of the lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) isoenzymes in the normal colonic mucosa. In adenocarcinomas, there is a significant rise in the percent of LDH-5. A similar disturbance has been demonstrated in 14 polyps, which confirms the known precancerous condition of these lesions. In the uninvolved mucosa surrounding neoplasm, the authors found that the increase in the relative proportion of "type M" isoenzymes, starting at 2 cm from the edge of the tumor, progressively disappears as the sample are taken farther away from the neoplasm. The authors conclude that these LDH isoenzyme pattern shifts in a normal mucosa could be an early sign of malignancy before the morphologic changes and could also be of great interest in the prediction of cancer relapse in the suture line after surgery.

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Extensive PSE after LT produced significant morbidity (37.5%). Peg-IFN/RBV was completed in five out of seven (71%), with SVR in two (28.6%). RBV adjustement due to anemia was high despite EPO use. Only patients able to complete or maintain antiviral therapy survived, with long-term significant benefits in hematological parameters and liver function tests.

No abstract