Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0023890 (cirrhosis)
 42,195 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

This study was performed in order to elucidate the mechanisms of systemic endotoxemia in liver cirrhosis. For this purpose, the method of measuring biliary endotoxin was established. Endotoxin levels between in the bile and in the plasma in cirrhosis were compared using a modified method of chromogenic quantitative endotoxin assay in an attempt to clarify liver function of clearing portal endotoxin originated from the gut. And functional activities of the reticuloendothelial system were also examined by radioassay with 59Fe-labelled iron-chondroitin sulfate colloid and by enzymohistochemistry of acid phosphatase. Both the plasma and biliary endotoxin levels in liver cirrhosis were significantly higher, compared to those in control. The functional activities of the reticuloendothelial system, particularly of the Kupffer cells, were decreased in liver cirrhosis. These data provide evidence that in liver cirrhosis systemic endotoxemia is mainly due to a decrease of functional activities of Kupffer cells. On the other hand, the excretion of endotoxin into the bile is increased, compensating the decreased functional activities of Kupffer cells. This implies that the uptake of endotoxin and its excretion into the bile by hepatocytes might be one of the mechanisms of clearing excess endotoxin in the plasma in liver cirrhosis. This study also draws the importance of measurements of endotoxin levels in the bile in liver diseases.
 ...
PMID:[Endotoxemia and its compensatory mechanisms in experimental liver cirrhosis]. 223 2

Four cases of neonatal haemochromatosis presenting as fulminant hepatic failure in the newborn were diagnosed by autopsy. In all four cases the diagnosis was made by histochemical demonstration of excessive iron deposition in hepatocytes and extrahepatic parenchymal cells, particularly pancreatic acinar epithelium, thyroid follicular epithelium and distal renal tubules. No haemosiderin was detectable in the extrahepatic mononuclear-phagocytic cells of the spleen, lymph nodes and bone marrow. The liver was the most severely affected organ. The hepatic haemosiderosis was associated with massive hepatocellular necrosis of prenatal onset in three patients, one of whom showed formation of regenerative nodules, establishing true congenital cirrhosis. Other inconstant findings included giant cell transformation, diffuse sinusoidal fibrosis with segregation of small groups of hepatocytes and cholestasis with pseudoacinar change of liver cell plates. The fetal liver disease had its onset in the late second trimester of pregnancy and was reflected clinically by severe panhypoproteinaemia with non-immune hydrops; hyperbilirubinaemia and haemorrhagic diatheses were apparent in the newborn. Neonatal haemochromatosis is a metabolic disorder, probably of autosomal recessive inheritance. The site and nature of the basic defect remain uncertain. Pathologists should be aware of this condition and its potential recurrence in subsequent pregnancies.
 ...
PMID:Neonatal haemochromatosis. 225 73

Critical considerations are expressed on scientific approach to liver cirrhosis, a nosological entity based on both analytical inquiry and long term observation of a large number of cirrhotic patients. The main points taken into consideration are: the etiopathogenesis of cirrhosis; a systematic of diagnostic elements; some preventional aspects of the disease and of its major sequelae. In the histogenetical analysis, the following steps are identified and analysed: a) hepatocellular death (necrosis), b) inflammatory process, c) fibrosis, d) hepatocellular regeneration and disorganized vascular architecture as a consequence of nodular regeneration. The hepatotoxic action of the three most studied and widespread etiologic agents of cirrhosis, alcohol, HBV, iron, is also considered. Finally, as a last pathogenetic step and peculiar to liver cirrhosis, the complex vascular rearrangement that leads to a relative increase of the liver blood flow is analysed. Clinical experience suggests a distinction between active and inactive liver cirrhosis. In the former we find a chronic active hepatitis associated with nodular regeneration and subsequent compensatory blood flow rearrangement. No signs of chronic active hepatitis can be found in the latter which is characterized by irreversible alteration of the liver architecture, reduction of the liver function and hemodynamic rearrangement (portal and arterial). Both nosologic entities can be either clinically characterized or not by symptoms of the major sequelae and complications of cirrhosis. On the basis of the clinical experience, among the complications of cirrhosis spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, gastrointestinal bleeding, hepatorenal syndrome and hepatocarcinoma appear to have a great prognostic value. Association between hepatocarcinoma and liver cirrhosis, which seems to be independent of single etiologic factors of cirrhosis itself, also has a great reliance.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
 ...
PMID:[Epistemology of liver cirrhosis]. 227 60

Increased elastic stained material has been described in fibrotic and cirrhotic liver processes. The aim of this work was to follow the development and distribution of elastic fibers from 48 chronic alcoholic patients. Patients were scored for fibrosis as 0, without fibrosis or minimal (n = 5); 1, incipient or early fibrosis (n = 9); 2, fibrosis or incomplete cirrhosis (n = 12); and 3, cirrhosis (n = 22). Elastica staining was performed by orcein, resorcin-fuchsin and iron hematoxylin and confirmed by immunofluorescence staining with an anti-human elastin antibody (Institut Pasteur). Electron microscopy of representative cases of each group and electron microscopy of immunolabelled elastin (n = 5) were also performed. In early alcoholic fibrosis, oxytalan fibers were pointed out in terminal hepatic veins and in Disse space. In fibrous portal extensions and cirrhotic internodular septa, oxytalan and elaunin fibers represented the major elastin components in association with the alcoholic liver fibroplasia. Immunostaining with anti-elastin Ab exhibits the same distribution as with histochemical methods in portal and septal zones. Electron microscopy confirmed abundant microfibrillar bundles between collagen fibers that mesh and are in continuity with elaunin fibers. Immunoelectron microscopy confirmed elastin deposits in the amorphous material and in association with the microfibrillar material in the portal and septal zones and disclosed elastin even in the thin strands of fibrotic tissue. In conclusion, elastogenesis, mainly represented by oxytalan and elaunin fibers, develops in alcoholic disease and takes part, with collagen deposits, in the fibrotic process.
 ...
PMID:Elastin in alcoholic liver disease. An immunohistochemical and immunoelectron microscopic study. 228 92

Superparamagnetic iron oxide was applied as a reticuloendothelial contrast agent in the diagnosis of cirrhosis and hepatitis in seven patients. Three patients had compensated cirrhosis, and four had active hepatitis. T1- and T2-weighted spin-echo magnetic resonance images were obtained before and 1 hour after the administration of iron oxide. Eight patients without diffuse liver disease served as a control group. Normal liver tissue showed a 75% +/- 9% reduction in signal intensity after the administration of iron oxide, and the liver appeared homogeneously hypointense. Cirrhotic liver tissue showed a smaller response (P less than .05) to iron oxide, with a 52% +/- 13% reduction in liver signal intensity. Inhomogeneous structures could be observed in enhanced images and are thought to represent fibrous bands or regenerating nodules. Liver tissue with active hepatitis showed a markedly reduced response to iron oxide (11% +/- 2%) (P less than .05), and the parenchyma appeared homogeneous. The authors conclude that the uptake of iron oxide particles is inhomogeneously altered in cirrhosis because of structural changes and homogeneously decreased in hepatitis because of functional changes of hepatic parenchyma.
 ...
PMID:Hepatic cirrhosis and hepatitis: MR imaging enhanced with superparamagnetic iron oxide. 230 63

Ga-67 urinary excretion was examined in 59 patients. The 72-hour urinary excretion rate ranged from 4.3 to 67.8% of the injected dose. Within the first 24 hours, 60.9% of the 72-hour urinary excretion was excreted. There was no significant difference in the Ga-67 urinary excretion rate between males and females, nor between the Ga-67 positive and negative cases. A significant negative correlation was found between the 72-hour Ga-67 urinary excretion rate and the unsaturated iron binding capacity. Notably, four patients with hyperferremia, which was considered secondary to leukemia and/or chemotherapy or liver cirrhosis, excreted more than 46.8% of Ga-67 within 72 hours. A significant negative correlation was also found between the 72-hour Ga-67 urinary excretion rate and age. Urinary excretion of Ga-67 may be related to the glomerular filtration rate, which decreases with age.
 ...
PMID:Clinical study of urinary excretion of Ga-67. 234 Jun 60

A 41-year-old hemodialyzed woman developed ascites and was found to have secondary iron overload. The dose of administered iron was approximately 11-12 g, and her serum ferritin level was 15,000 ng/ml (15,000 micrograms/l). There were no signs of congestive heart failure, fluid overload, or liver cirrhosis. A program of weekly phlebotomy combined with recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) therapy was tried to eliminate the iron congestion. After 9 months of this therapy, about 5 g of iron had been removed. The ascites completely disappeared, and her serum ferritin level fell to 5,800 ng/ml (5,800 micrograms/l). This suggests that such combined therapy would be useful when iron overload must be corrected rapidly. Before therapy, the sterile ascitic fluid showed exudative characteristics with 3.7 g/dl (37 g/l) of total protein. The serum-ascites albumin difference was 0.6 g/dl (6 g/l), and the fluid contained 1,400 inflammatory cells/mm3 (1.4 X 10(9)/l). Notably, the serum-ascites albumin difference increased in parallel with iron elimination. These findings suggested that iron deposition may have played a role in changing the permeability of the peritoneum, or in impairing lymphatic drainage, both of which are presumed to be pathogenetic factors of nephrogenic ascites.
 ...
PMID:Treatment of a patient with end-stage renal disease, severe iron overload and ascites by weekly phlebotomy combined with recombinant human erythropoietin. 236 36

Forty women with a major sickle hemoglobinopathy (hemoglobin SS, SC, or S-beta-thalassemia) were given red blood cell transfusions prophylactically during pregnancy. A mean of 13.6 units of erythrocytes per woman was given and none received more than 28 units. Direct-vision needle biopsy of the liver was performed in conjunction with cesarean section or puerperal sterilization. Although iron deposition in hepatocytes and Kupffer cells was identified commonly, neither cirrhosis nor widespread hepatocellular necrosis was found. We conclude that the risk of irreversible hepatic damage is negligible in women with sickle hemoglobinopathies who are given erythrocytes prophylactically during one pregnancy.
 ...
PMID:Liver histopathologic findings in women with sickle cell disease given prophylactic transfusion during pregnancy. 240 75

Forty-two male patients with alcoholic liver disease were studied for iron status by indirect hematological assays, including red cell ferritin (RCF), and histochemical estimations. Serum iron and ferritin, total iron-binding capacity levels were unrelated to iron deposits, whereas RCF concentration was a good index of iron stores as detected by direct assessment on bone marrow and liver biopsy specimens. A relatively high proportion of alcoholics (19%) were iron-deficient. Alcoholic patients with cirrhosis exhibited higher RCF values than patients with alcoholic hepatitis. However, this increase was apparently unrelated to cirrhosis per se. In alcoholics we found that RCF was mainly related to levels of bone marrow iron. The increased RCF values observed in patients with hepatic siderosis was mediated by marrow iron stores. RCF can therefore be regarded as a useful test to distinguish patients with liver siderosis and normal values of bone marrow iron.
 ...
PMID:Evaluation of iron stores in patients with alcoholic liver disease: role of red cell ferritin. 245 66

Endomyocardial biopsy was performed in 13 patients with primary or secondary iron overload. Prussian blue staining showed visible iron in the biopsy fragments of 8 out of 13 patients. Because of the inhomogeneity of iron deposition in the biopsy fragments, a semi-quantitative myocardial iron grading system was used in which the percentage of Perls' positive cells on 4 to 6 biopsy fragments was averaged from each case. The presence of stainable iron in the myofibrils was not predictable from serum iron, transferrin saturation, serum ferritin or liver iron grading, nor from evidence of endocrine dysfunction. In patients with Perls' positive material in the myocardium, there was a significant correlation between the endomyocardial iron grade and serum iron and transferrin saturation. These results suggest that other factors besides the body iron load determine cardiac iron deposition. The fact that myocardial siderosis was documented only in patients with hepatic cirrhosis, irrespective of the hepatic iron load, suggests that severe liver damage may be a prerequisite for the accumulation of iron in the heart.
 ...
PMID:Myocardial iron grading by endomyocardial biopsy. A clinico-pathologic study on iron overloaded patients. 247 Jun 15


<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next >>