No abstract

No abstract

The 1-year CR rate after percutaneous treatment of early HCC was significantly better with RFA than with PEI but did not provide a clear survival advantage in cirrhotic patients.

Interleukin-12, a cytokine with an important role against intracellular pathogens, promotes Th1 cell development, cellmediated cytotoxicity, and interferon-␥ production. We investigated the immunoregulatory role of IL-12 in 72 chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers, 33 of whom were monitored longitudinally during interferon-␣ treatment. Serum levels of IL-12 heterodimer, IL-12 p40 subunit, IL-4, and Th1 cytokines were determined by specific ELISAs, and hepatitis B core antigen-specific T cell response by a proliferation assay. Chronic HBV carriers had higher serum levels of IL-12 and IL-12 p40 in comparison with controls ( P Ͻ 0.01), suggesting that IL-12 production is not impaired. The longitudinal analysis revealed a further substantial increase ( Ͼ 2.5 ϫ baseline level) of bioactive IL-12 and Th1 cytokines in patients who cleared HBV and seroconverted to antihepatitis B e, unlike the 23 nonresponders with persistent HBV replication ( P Ͻ 0.01). The IL-12 peak followed the peak of hepatocytolysis by 9.8 Ϯ 2.8 wk and occurred either before or simultaneously with hepatitis B e seroconversion.

No abstract

These results suggest that control of HCV replication may depend on eVective T H lymphocyte activation. (Gut 1999;44:424-429)

No abstract

Our results show that a combination of EUS-FNA-FC is a feasible and highly accurate method, which may be used for the diagnosis and subtyping of deep-seated lymphoma, providing a significant improvement to cytomorphology alone both for diagnosis and treatment planning, as long as immunocytochemistry is available for non-lymphoma cases.