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

Seven women, mean age 47.7 years, with primary biliary cirrhosis (6 patients in the II-III stage and I patient in IV stage of the disease) were treated in the course of 16 months with ursodeoxycholic acid (Ursofalk) 500 mg daily. At the end of the 3-d month of treatment the itching had passed in 3 of the patients and in the remaining 4 patients it had substantially decreased. In all patients the subjective complaints, dyspeptic syndrome, appetite and sleep improved. The serum concentrations of bilirubin, copper and cholesterol started to decrease and the serum activity of the enzymes alkaline phosphatase, ALAT and ASAT also decreased. In one patient the treatment was discontinued in the 6-th month because of allergic reaction. After 16 month treatment in the 6 patients who completed the treatment the itching passed and the working capacity improved. The serum concentrations of bilirubin, cholesterol, copper and IgG significantly fell (p less than 0.01), the serum activity of alkaline phosphatase, gamma glutamyl transpeptidase, ALAT and ASAT fell near the upper normal range. The hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, McLagan's flocculation test, serum concentration of IgM and the titer of the specific antimitochondrial antibodies (M2) did not change in spite of the treatment. The results show the ursodeoxycholic acid as a perspective therapeutic means for primary biliary cirrhosis which lowers or overcomes the syndrome of intrahepatic cholestasis and limits the activity of the cirrhotic process in the liver. Ursodeoxycholic acid is well tolerated.
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PMID:[The treatment of primary biliary liver cirrhosis with ursodeoxycholic acid (preliminary report)]. 177 66

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) represents only a part of a wide spectrum of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its prevalence is only 2 - 3% in the general population. Obesity, diabetes, hyperlipidemia and female sex are important risk factors for NASH. Two hit theory describes very well the pathogenesis of NASH wherein hepatic steatosis, the first hit is followed up by the second hit, one of which may be reactive oxygen species. Mitochondria is the main source of reactive oxygen species which may trigger steatohepatitis by lipid peroxidation, cytokine induction or induction of fas-ligand. Insulin resistance syndrome is the only metabolic syndrome that has been consistently associated with NASH. The diagnosis rests on the hallmark histological features and rigorous exclusion of significant alcohol consumption. Most patients are asymptomatic, have mild-to-moderate elevations of serum aminotransferase levels, clinical hepatomegaly and features of fatty liver on imaging. Liver biopsy is essential for positive diagnosis and prognostication of NASH. Histologically, fat deposition is typically macrovesicular and inflammation of steatohepatitis is predominantly lobular. Neutrophilic cells in lobular inflammatory infilterate are a distinguishing feature of steatohepatitis and differentiate it from other chronic hepatitis. The pattern of collagen deposition is perivenular & peri-sinusoidal spaces in zone 3. NASH is a progressive disease in more than one in four and has spontaneous regression in less than one in six. Therapy options include weight reduction in obese, good control in diabetics and exercise. Ursodeoxycholic acid has membrane stabilizing, cytoprotective and immunological effect and normalizes raised transaminases. Liver transplantation has been done in NASH but transplanted liver shows re-development in more than two thirds. Many more therapies are in the pipeline and show promise for the future.
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PMID:Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. 1592 3

As improvements in nutritional and pulmonary care increase the life expectancy of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, CF-associated liver disease (CFLD) is emerging as a cause of mortality. CFLD is the third leading cause of death in CF patients. We performed a search on PubMed and Google Scholar for published articles on CFLD. We reviewed the articles found in the literature search and gave priority to recent publications and studies with larger sample sizes. The prevalence of CFLD in the CF population is around 23% with a range of 2-62% and that prevalence increases linearly with age from 3.7% at age 5 to 32.2% at age 30. CFLD can present clinically in various ways such as hepatomegaly, variceal hemorrhage, persistent elevation of liver enzymes, and micro-gallbladder. Due to the focal nature of fibrosis in majority cases of CFLD, liver biopsies are sparsely performed for diagnosis or the marker of liver fibrosis. Although the mechanism of CFLD development is still unknown, many potential factors are reported. Some mutations of CFTR such as having a homozygous F508del mutation has been reported to increase the risk of developing CFLD and its severity. Having the SERPINA1 Z allele, a history of pancreatic insufficiency, a history meconium ileus, CF-related diabetes, or being male increases the risk of developing CFLD. Environmental factors do not appear to have significant effect on modulating CFLD development. Ursodeoxycholic acid is commonly used to treat or prevent CFLD, but the efficacy of this treatment is questionable.
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PMID:Cystic fibrosis-associated liver disease in children. 3241 13