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

The prevalence of antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) was investigated in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and correlated with the clinical features. Anti-HCV was detected in 129 histology or aspiration cytology proven HCC patients and 54 healthy controls. Anti-HCV was examined by the HCV EIA (Abbott Laboratories). All healthy controls were anti-HCV-negative. Nineteen of 81 (23.5%) hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive HCC patients were positive for anti-HCV. Anti-HCV was found among 60.4% (29/48) of HCC patients without detectable HB-sAg. Forty-eight of 129 (37.2%) HCC patients were positive for anti-HCV. There was a significant difference in the prevalence of anti-HCV between patients with HBsAg (23.5%) and those without HBsAg (60.4%, P = 0.0001). However, irrespective of the status of HBsAg, there was no statistical difference in sex, age, routine liver function tests, alpha-fetoprotein concentration, or associated cirrhosis between patients with anti-HCV and those without. The results imply that hepatitis C virus may play a role in the pathogenesis of HCC.
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PMID:Hepatitis C virus antibody in hepatocellular carcinoma in Taiwan. 165 8

In Italy the incidence of hepatocellular-carcinoma (HCC) in patients with liver cirrhosis is estimated approximately 5% per year. The new imaging technologies make it possible to perform screening programs for the early detection of HCC in these patients; early diagnosis of HCC is recommended as the best strategy in order to enable surgical approach, which seems to be the only effective therapy: screening programs must consider the cost-benefit ratio in the choice of patients and standards of investigation. In the Japanese authors' opinion all patients with liver cirrhosis must be screened every three months with an ultrasonographic liver examination (US) and a measurement of serum alpha-1-fetoprotein level (AFP) and every nine months with a computed tomography (CT) of the liver: at a 5% annual incidence of HCC the cost of a single diagnosis is estimated about 8000 +. In our opinion the cirrhotic patients in Child's C class (approximately 20%) can be excluded from the screening programs, since the survival expectation of these patients is always poor, whether HCC is present or not. Furthermore, considering the acknowledged reliability of the US in the detection of space occupying lesions of the liver, periodical CT examination seems to be unproductive. AFP has a low sensibility as a marker of HCC; nevertheless a progressive increase of its levels can be considered an index of possible blastomatous transformation of cirrhotic liver. In comparison with the Japanese screening programs, the proposed changes might obtain a 55% reduction of the cost of a single diagnosis of HCC, without significant diagnostic loss.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:[Early diagnosis of hepatocarcinoma: criteria for the performance of screening in patients with liver cirrhosis]. 165 81

16 patients (14 males, 2 females, mean age: 59.2 years) underwent sonographic-guided ethanol injections as treatment for 23 hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) complicating cirrhosis. All lesions were pathologically proven by sonographic-guided cytology. Tumor sizes ranged from 9 to 66 mm. Sterile 96% alcohol was injected with a 17.7 cm-long 22 gauge spinal needle at one week intervals. At each session, 8-50 ml was injected depending on the diameter of the tumor. We regarded as a "success" the negativation of the cytologies one, two and three months after the end of the treatment associated with normalization of alpha-fetoprotein levels and typical echographic and tomodensitometric changes. No serious complication was associated with the procedure. In the "Child A" group1, 6 of 7 tumors have been successfully treated, the largest measuring 66 mm. The seventh lesion is currently being treated. In the "Child B" group1 3 of 6 lesions have been successfully treated. No success has been obtained in the "Child C" group. Volumes of alcohol greater than previously reported may be useful for lesions larger than 40 mm. Percutaneous alcohol injections can be considered as an alternative to surgery even for lesions larger than 50 mm. Among 4 patients presenting with 11 liver metastases of colic and gastric adenocarcinoma and 1 patient with a small bowel carcinoid tumor, one remission with a follow-up of 5 months was observed.
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PMID:[Percutaneous ethanol injection of malignant liver tumors under ultrasonographic guidance]. 165 40

Using a sandwich enzyme-linked immunoassay, plasma total cathepsin D concentration was assayed in 40 breast cancer patients and 84 patients with various liver diseases and compared to that of 52 normal subjects. There were no significant variations found in breast cancer patients related to tumor size, node invasiveness or metastases. In normal women, cathepsin D levels were slightly but not significantly increased in the luteal phase and in pregnancy. By contrast, plasma cathepsin D concentration was significantly increased in 70-75% of patients with liver disease (cirrhosis, hepatocarcinoma, hepatitis), but not in those with liver steatosis. Cathepsin D was independent of most of the plasma hepatic function tests and was correlated with alpha-fetoprotein in cirrhosis and with alpha-fucosidase in primary hepatocellular carcinoma. We conclude that plasma cathepsin D is not a useful marker in breast cancer. However, since the cellular level of this protease is associated with risk of metastasis in breast cancer, clinical follow-up will be required to test whether high cathepsin D plasma concentration has any prognostic value in liver cirrhosis and primary hepatocarcinoma.
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PMID:Increased plasma cathepsin D concentration in hepatic carcinoma and cirrhosis but not in breast cancer. 166 31

Serum levels of alpha-1-Antitrypsin(AAT) were determined in 42 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC), 5 patients with metastatic liver cancer from stomach adenocarcinoma, 10 patients with liver cirrhosis, 10 patients with chronic hepatitis, and 66 controls by rocket immunoelectrophoresis using rabbit antiserum. The mean level of serum AAT was 225.5 +/- 73.0 mg/dl in 66 controls. The serum AAT in patients with HCC was 428.7 +/- 123.3 mg/dl, which was significantly higher than those in the controls and in patients with liver cirrhosis or chronic hepatitis(p less than 0.02). The level of AAT in metastatic liver cancer was similar to that in HCC. The positive cut-off value for elevation of serum AAT in this study was determined as above 445 mg/dl, the mean plus 3 standard deviations in the controls. Elevations of serum AAT were observed in 54.8%, 60.0%, and 10.0% of patients with HCC, metastatic liver cancer, and liver cirrhosis, respectively, while none of the patients with chronic hepatitis or the controls was positive. The serum AAT levels in 42 patients with HCC were analyzed with regard to sex, age, serum albumin, HBsAg, alpha-fetoprotein(AFP), and diameter of HCC, with no significant differences being observed between these factors and the serum AAT levels except for the diameter of the HCC. The positive rate in the HCC with a diameter of 10 cm or more was 74.1%, which was a significantly higher rate compared with 20.0% in the HCC with diameters less than 10cm. The positive rate of AFP for HCC was 61.9%, when 500 ng/ml of AFP was used as the cut-off value.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Clinical usefulness of alpha-1-antitrypsin in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. 166 67

After a long, hopeless period in the management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the diagnosis and treatment of HCC have progressed remarkably in the past decade. In particular the discovery of asymptomatic HCC in the early 1970s opened up a new era in clinical research of HCC. With the progress in the diagnostic imaging of liver tumors, a 1 cm hepatic mass can now be detected. It is especially worth noting that a 5-year survival rate of 72.9% has been achieved after the resection of the tumor in asymptomatic HCC patients. The role of surgery in the treatment of HCC has become more important. Various modalities of medical treatment and combination therapy have been recommended and used. Despite the progress in the early diagnosis and treatment of HCC, a complete cure is very rare. Problems to be studied include new tumor markers for the early detection of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)-negative HCC, the development of more specific treatments for unresectable HCC with uncompensated cirrhosis, and an effective approach to preventing recurrence and metastasis after radical resection.
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PMID:Current management of hepatocellular carcinoma. 166 77

alpha-Fetoprotein in sera from healthy subjects and patients with liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma was fractionated into three peaks by affinity chromatography on a column of Lens culinaris agglutinin-Sepharose 4B. One peak (the first peak) was found in all the serum samples, but the other two peaks (the second and third peaks) were found only in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. For alpha-fetoprotein in the second and third peaks, a specific enzyme immunoassay was developed. Lens culinaris agglutinin-coated polystyrene balls were incubated with alpha-fetoprotein and, after washing, with affinity-purified anti-alpha-fetoprotein Fab'-beta-D-galactosidase conjugate. beta-D-galactosidase activity bound to the polystyrene balls was assayed by fluorimetry. The maximal volume of serum that could be used without interference was 0.2 microliters, and the minimal detectable serum concentrations of alpha-fetoprotein in the second and third peaks were 3.5 mg/liter and 0.1 mg/liter, respectively. The maximal serum concentration of alpha-fetoprotein in the first peak that did not affect the detection limits of alpha-fetoprotein in the second and third peaks was 10 mg/liter. It was possible to confirm the presence of alpha-fetoprotein in the second and third peaks by a significant difference between bound beta-D-galactosidase activities in the absence and presence of alpha-methyl-D-mannoside or D-glucose. This assay may be useful for diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma, although further improvements remain to be made.
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PMID:Specific enzyme immunoassay for alpha-fetoprotein from hepatocellular carcinoma. 169 Feb 79

One-hundred and thirty-three consecutive ascitic patients hospitalized in our Liver Unit were prospectively investigated, to define the accuracy of ascitic fluid analysis in identifying malignancy. Patients with extrahepatic cancer and peritoneal carcinomatosis were characterized by positive cytology and higher ascitic levels of fibronectin, lactic dehydrogenase, carcinoembryonic antigen, and total protein than both patients with uncomplicated cirrhosis and patients with cirrhosis and liver cancer. Ascitic cytology, fibronectin, and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) were the most sensitive and specific markers of extrahepatic malignancy. In contrast, none of these markers was useful in identifying patients with primary liver cancer complicating cirrhosis. For them, the only alteration of the ascitic fluid was an elevated alpha-fetoprotein concentration. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of ascitic alpha-fetoprotein for detecting liver cancer were 87%, 95%, and 94%, respectively. Combining cytology with the determinations of fibronectin (or LDH) and alpha-fetoprotein in ascitic fluid satisfactorily differentiated 28 of 32 cases of malignancy-related ascites, with very low incidence of false-positives (4-6%). Therefore, in view of the frequent difficulties in detecting liver cancer as a complication of cirrhosis in patients with ascites, it is advisable to determine all these three markers in the same ascitic sample.
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PMID:Utility of ascitic fluid analysis in patients with malignancy-related ascites. 169 Sep 13

Alpha-fetoprotein in sera from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma was fractionated into three peaks by affinity chromatography on a column of Lens culinaris agglutinin-Sepharose 4B. One peak (the first peak), which passed through the column without adsorption, was found in both healthy subjects and patients with liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The second and third peaks were reactive with L. culinaris agglutinin and found only in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. For alpha-fetoprotein in the second and third peaks, a novel and sensitive enzyme immunoassay (immune-complex-transfer enzyme immunoassay) was developed. Alpha-fetoprotein in test serum was reacted with dinitrophenyl affinity-purified anti-alpha-fetoprotein IgG, and the complex formed was trapped onto affinity-purified (antidinitrophenyl bovine serum albumin) IgG-coated polystyrene balls. The polystyrene balls were washed to eliminate substance(s) other than alpha-fetoprotein in the test serum, and the complex was eluted from the polystyrene balls with dinitrophenyl-L-lysine. The eluted complex containing alpha-fetoprotein in the second and third peaks was trapped onto L. culinaris agglutinin-coated polystyrene balls and reacted with affinity-purified anti-alpha-fetoprotein Fab'-beta-D-galactosidase conjugate. Beta-D-galactosidase activity bound to the polystyrene balls was assayed by fluorimetry. The maximal volume of serum that could be used without interference was 20 microliters, which was 100-fold larger than that in the previous enzyme immunoassay.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Novel and sensitive enzyme immunoassay (immune-complex-transfer enzyme immunoassay) for alpha-fetoprotein from hepatocellular carcinoma. 169 71

Circulating immune complexes (CIC), complement and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) were detected in 93 hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), 16 patients with liver cirrhosis (LC) and 54 healthy controls. The CIC and complements were significantly higher in HCC patients than in LC patients. The complement and polyethylene glycol(PEG)-CIC in HCC patients with LC were higher than those in LC only (P less than 0.0001). The complement levels in LC patients were significantly lower than in controls. There was no difference in C3 and C4 between HCC patients and controls, while the C3 proactivator was higher in HCC patients (P less than 0.02). The C1q-CIC was higher in HCC and LC patients when compared to controls (P less than 0.0001). In patients with HCC, there was no difference in the CIC and complement levels between patients with cirrhosis and those without. There were inverse correlations between C1q-CIC and C3 (P less than 0.05), C1q-CIC and C4 (P less than 0.04). The mean level of 3% PEG-CIC and C1q-CIC increased significantly as AFP elevated, but decreased as AFP was higher than 1599 ng/ml (P less than 0.05). These results imply that CIC increase with tumor growth but further tumor burden may result in a fall in CIC, there was a shifting of CIC from complement-fixing to non-complement-fixing as AFP increased gradually.
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PMID:Relationship of serum alpha-fetoprotein to circulating immune complexes and complements in patients with hepatitis B surface antigen-positive hepatocellular carcinoma. 169 50


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