Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0019209 (hepatomegaly)
 5,798 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Full blood counts and some serum biochemistry were carried out on 349 male and 22 female apparently healthy Papua New Guinea subjects, most of whom were highlanders. In males, RBC, Hb, PCV, MCH, MCHC, serum albumin, ferritin, iron, per cent transferrin saturation and folate means were significantly lower than the Australian normal means; WBC and MCV means were similar to Australian values; and eosinophil and reticulocyte counts and serum transferrin and vitamin B12 means were higher than Australian means. In females, WBC, RBC, Hb, PCV, MCV, MHC, MCHC and serum ferritin means were lower than Australian means; eosinophil counts, serum iron, per cent transferrin saturation, and folate means were similar to Australian means; and serum transferrin and B12 means were higher than the Australian means. Hepatomegaly and mild splenomegaly were common. beta-Thalassemia was present in three subjects two of whom were from Simbu Province.
 ...
PMID:Some haematological and physical characteristics of a group of Papua New Guinea highlanders. 694 72

We identified 35 homozygotes for hemochromatosis through pedigree studies. Thirteen were asymptomatic. Arthropathy was present in 20, hepatomegaly in 19, transaminasemia in 16, skin pigmentation in 15, splenomegaly in 14, cirrhosis in 14, hypogonadism in six, and diabetes in two. No homozygote was in congestive failure. Only one had the triad of hepatomegaly, hyperpigmentation, and diabetes. Serum iron was increased in 30 of 35, transferrin saturation was increased in all 35, serum ferritin in 23 of 32, urinary iron excretion after deferoxamine in 28 of 33, hepatic parenchymal cell stainable iron in 32 of 33, and hepatic iron in 27 of 27. Iron loading was 2.7 times greater in men than in women. No female had hepatic cirrhosis. Diagnosis of asymptomatic hemochromatosis is important because organ damage may be prevented by early therapy. Clinical diagnosis of early hemochromatosis is difficult. Persons with unexplained elevation of transferrin saturation should be studied for hemochromatosis.
 ...
PMID:Homozygosity for hemochromatosis: clinical manifestations. 743 83

A case of genetic hemochromatosis presented with asymptomatic hepatomegaly. The diagnosis was based on elevated serum iron, serum ferritin and transferrin saturation, a characteristic picture on magnetic resonance imaging, and liver biopsy showing cirrhosis with excessive iron deposits in the liver parenchyma. The extreme rarity of this disease in our country is perhaps determined by hereditary factors.
 ...
PMID:Genetic hemochromatosis presenting as asymptomatic hepatomegaly. 820 40

Primary hemochromatosis is characterized by a specific pattern of clinical manifestations. It includes liver disease with hepatomegaly, glucose intolerance, e.g. diabetes, hyperpigmentation oft the skin, impotence/ amenorrhea, arthropathy, cardiomyopathy and fatigue. Laboratory investigation reveals significantly elevated serum ferritin and transferrin saturation with iron. The diagnosis is confirmed by liver biopsy and quantitative determination of elevated liver iron content. Wilson's disease represents a copper storage disease. Prominent clinical features are hepatomegaly and splenomegaly. Neurological alterations and detection of Kayser-Fleischer corneal rings are typical. In the acute initial phase the often young patients present with Coombs-negative hemolysis. Psychiatric alterations, cardiomyopathy, arthropathy, nephropathy, as well as thrombocytopenia and leucopenia are other clinical features. Laboratory parameters of Wilson's disease include low serum ceruloplasmin and serum copper. There is an elevated urinary copper excretion and elevated serum free copper concentration. The diagnosis is confirmed by liver biopsy with quantitative determination of an elevated liver copper content.
 ...
PMID:[Current diagnosis: hereditary metabolic diseases of the liver (primary hemochromatosis, Wilson disease)]. 898 78

The discovery of the hemochromatosis gene has deeply changed and simplified the diagnosis of the disease. In a given individual, establishing the diagnosis relies, from now on, on a simple blood sample showing the couple: elevated transferrin saturation and homozygous C282Y mutation (= C282Y +/+). Liver biopsy should only be performed when iron overload is massive in order to detect cirrhosis (or bridging fibrosis), i.e. in a prognostic view. Practically, liver biopsy is confined to the following two situations: when the C282Y +/+ patient exhibits hepatomegaly and/or an increase in serum transaminases and/or a serum ferritin level above 1,000 micrograms/L; whenever, despite a strong bio-clinical suspicion of iron overload, genetic testing does not show the expected homozygosity for C282Y. At the family level, evaluating the risk for hemochromatosis is now "instantaneous" thanks to genetic testing. One must, however, keep in mind in interpreting the data of the family members that: clinical expression of the homozygous status is not constant; heterozygosity for C282Y does not per se lead to significant iron overload, but may constitute a co-factor exacerbating (or increasing the risk of) other hepatic or non hepatic diseases. Heterozygosity exposes also to the risk of homozygosity among the offspring; this knowledge of C282Y status must be balanced by the negative impact from the standpoint of possible societal genetic discrimination.
 ...
PMID:[The diagnosis of hemochromatosis in the era of the gene]. 1052 Apr 12

Hereditary hemochromatosis (HHC) is one of the most common inherited disorders in the Caucasian population. Diagnosis usually made after an elevation in ferritin and serum transferrin saturation is noted, often accompanied by asymptomatic hepatomegaly. Diagnosis is confirmed by genetic testing or liver biopsy. Damage to organs is due to excessive intestinal iron, which is transported to and then deposited in the liver parenchyma, and the heart, skin, and endocrine organs, causing skin pigmentation, development of cirrhosis and hepatic carcinoma, diabetes and endocrine failure, and heart failure. Bony changes can be manifested by arthritis, often in non-weight-bearing joints. The treatment of HHC is phlebotomy, which depletes iron stores. When diagnosis is made before organ damage occurs, treatment can prevent manifestations of the disease. Skin pigmentation and some cardiac damage may reverse on depletion of iron stores, but liver and endocrine damage is rarely reversible. Arthropathy is also not reversible, and often continues to progress even with effective treatment. When hemochromatosis is diagnosed, all first degree relatives of the patient should undergo genetic testing. With early detection and treatment this can be a manageable chronic disease. If undetected, it is potentially fatal.
 ...
PMID:Hereditary hemochromatosis: diagnosis and treatment in primary care. 1054 25

We studied peripheral blood erythrocyte parameters and HFE genotypes in 94 hemochromatosis probands and 132 white, normal control subjects. Mean red blood cell counts in probands and control subjects were not significantly different. However, mean values of hemoglobin, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) were significantly higher in C282Y/C282Y probands (n = 60) than in wild-type control subjects (n = 65). Probands with other HFE genotypes also had increased mean erythrocyte parameters (other than red blood cell count). Peripheral blood smears prepared before therapeutic phlebotomy revealed that erythrocytes in many probands had increased diameters and were well filled with hemoglobin. Erythrocyte parameters were similar in C282Y/C282Y probands with and without hepatomegaly, elevated serum concentrations of hepatic enzymes, hepatic cirrhosis, diabetes mellitus, arthropathy, or hypogonadism. Among C282Y/C282Y probands, significantly greater values of MCV (but not other erythrocyte parameters) occurred among those who had transferrin saturation values of 75% or greater or iron overload at diagnosis. After iron depletion, the mean MCV, MCH, and MCHC values of C282Y/C282Y probands decreased but remained significantly greater than values in wild-type control subjects. Mean values of prephlebotomy MCH and MCHC concentrations were lower in HLA-A3-positive than in HLA-A3-negative C282Y/C282Y probands. We conclude that increased values of mean hemoglobin, hematocrit, MCV, MCH, and MCHC in hemochromatosis probands are caused primarily by increased iron uptake and hemoglobin synthesis by immature erythroid cells. Mechanisms of iron uptake by erythrocytes that could explain these results are discussed.
 ...
PMID:Peripheral blood erythrocyte parameters in hemochromatosis: evidence for increased erythrocyte hemoglobin content. 1063

Hemochromatosis is one of the most frequent genetic diseases among the white populations, affecting one in three hundred persons. Its diagnosis has been radically transformed by the discovery of the HFE gene. In a given individual, the diagnosis can, from now on, be ascertained on the sole association of a plasma transferrin saturation (TS) over 45% and homozygosity for the C282Y mutation. Liver biopsy is only required to search for cirrhosis whenever there is hepatomegaly and/or serum ferritin >1000 ng/ml and/or elevated serum AST. Family screening is mandatory, primarily centered on the siblings. The treatment remains based on venesection therapy which improves many features of the disease (one of the most refractory, however, being the joint signs) and permits normal life expectancy provided the diagnosis is established prior to the development of cirrhosis or of insulin-dependent diabetes. In view of the prevalence, the non-invasive diagnosis, the spontaneous severity and the efficacy of a very simple therapy, hemochromatosis should benefit from population screening. This screening could be based, first, on the assessment of transferrin saturation, followed - when elevated - by the search for the C282Y mutation. The discovery of the HFE gene has also paved the road for the individualization of other types of iron overload syndromes which are not HFE-related.
 ...
PMID:Clinical aspects of hemochromatosis. 1109 95

Hereditary hemochromatosis is an inherited autosomal recessive disease, associated to a mutation in the recently described HFE gene, which is located on the short arm of chromosome 6. The product of this gene combines with the beta-2-microglobulin and the ferritin receptor, and regulates the iron absorption in the small intestine crypt cells. It is possible that the mutation may cause the increased iron uptake by the intestinal cells. The disease is very much common in men after the forties, and its expression is influenced by concomitant alcoholism, iron rich diet, oral and parenteral iron administration, menstrual blood loss or abnormal hemorrhages, blood donations, pregnancy, lactation, and iron malabsorption clinical conditions, like celiac disease. Many patients are asymptomatic, and the diagnosis may be suspected by hepatomegaly of unknown cause, abnormal iron metabolism tests, increased serum aminotransferase levels, diabetes mellitus, and anonymous arthropathy. Less commonly hereditary hemochromatosis presented by symptoms and signs of chronic liver disease, or by the classic triad described by Trousseau skin pigmentation, hepatomegaly and diabetes mellitus. The diagnosis is confirmed by the increased serum ferritin levels and transferrin saturation, and the stainable iron in hepatocytes, measured by scale devised by Scheuer et al, or the measurement of the hepatic iron. The C282Y mutation was found in 64 to 100% of patients; eventually, subjects with hepatic iron overload identical to hereditary hemochromatosis has no mutation, and homozygous for the C282Y mutation do not express iron overload. Iron is best and quickly removed by weekly or twice-weekly phlebotomy of 500 ml, containing approximately 250 mg iron. One to 3 years of weekly phlebotomy may be required to reduce stores to normal. As a guide to long-term maintenance therapy, is recommended phlebotomy every 3 months and the serum ferritin level should be maintained by less than 50 ng/ml.
 ...
PMID:[Hereditary hemochromatosis]. 1217 Feb 86

Iron overload in body tissues can cause complications such as cirrhosis, cardiomyopathy, diabetes, hypogonadism and arthritis. In populations of northern European descent, most iron overload is due to hereditary haemochromatosis (HHC), a genetic condition that causes increased iron absorption. HHC can be treated or prevented by regular phlebotomy treatments. Some experts have called for population screening for HHC, so that early phlebotomy treatment can be initiated. Two screening tests are available: measurement of the serum iron transferrin saturation (Tf%) and genetic testing for HFE mutations. However, both methods have low positive predictive values. Current data suggest that most people at risk are unlikely to develop clinical symptoms and that the population prevalence of clinical complications of HHC is low, arguing against population screening. Two other prevention strategies are available. (1) Health provider education, to heighten awareness of HHC as an explanation for symptoms and signs seen in early iron overload including unexplained fatigue, joint pain, palpitations, abdominal pain, elevated liver function tests, hepatomegaly and elevated serum ferritin. (2) Family-based testing after a diagnosis of HHC, to ensure that relatives are evaluated for evidence of iron overload. More research is also needed to identify the factors that increase risk for disease in persons with excess iron uptake, to determine whether moderate iron overload is a health risk and to evaluate the causes of iron overload other than HHC.
 ...
PMID:Hereditary haemochromatosis: a realistic approach to prevention of iron overload disease in the population. 1240 10


<< Previous 1 2 3 Next >>