ABSTRACT
Objective@#To explore the improvement rate of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection who received entecavir alone or in combination with anluohuaxianwan for 78 weeks.@*Methods@#Patients with chronic HBV infection were randomly treated with entecavir alone or in combination with anluohuaxian for 78 weeks. Ishak fibrosis score was used for blind interpretation of liver biopsy specimens. The improvement in liver fibrosis condition before and after the treatment was compared. Student's t test and non-parametric test (Mann-Whitney U-Test and Kruskal-Wallis test) were used to analyze the measurement data. The categorical variables were analyzed by Chi-square test method and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used to test bivariate associations.@*Results@#Liver fibrosis improvement rate after 78 weeks of treatment was 36.53% (80/219) and the progression rate was 23.29% (51/219). The improvement of liver fibrosis was associated to the degree of baseline fibrosis and treatment methods (P < 0.05). The improvement rate of hepatic fibrosis in patients treated with anluohuaxianwan combined with entecavir at baseline F < 3 (54.74%, 52/95) was significantly higher than that in patients treated only with entecavir (33.33%, 16/48), P = 0.016 and the progression rate of hepatic fibrosis (13.68%, 13/95) was lower than that in patients treated alone (18.75%, 9/48), P = 0.466. In patients with baseline F < 3, the proportion of patients with improved and stable liver fibrosis in the combined treatment group (68.1%, 32/47) was higher than that in the treatment group alone (51.7%, 15/29).@*Conclusion@#Combined anluohuaxianwan and entecavir treatment can significantly improve the improvement rate of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection. Furthermore, it has the tendency to improve the stability rate and reduce the rate of progression of liver fibrosis.
ABSTRACT
Objective To compare the virological responses between Peg IFNαt-2a and Peg IFNα-2b in treatment of chronic hepatitis C.Methods Clinical data of 46 chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients were retrospectively reviewed.Patients were divided into two groups:Peg IFNα-2a group ( n =24) was given Peg IFNoα-2a 180 μg/week and ribavirin; Peg IFNα-2b group (n =22 ) was given Peg IFNα-2b1.5 μg · kg-1 · week-1 and ribavirin.Serum HCV RNA load at 4th,12th and 24th week of the treatment were detected to evaluate the virological responses.Softwares SPSS 13.0 and PEMS 3.1 were used for statistical analysis.Results There was no significant difference in rapid response rate,early response rate,complete response rate and non-response rate between the two groups (x2 =0.689,0.105,0.105 and 0.105,P ＞ 0.05 ).However for patients with high viral load ( HCV RNA ＞ 6 logl0 copies/mL) at baseline,the rapid response rate in Peg IFNα-2a group ( 86.67％ ) was higher than that in Peg IFNα-2bgroup (42.86％ ) (x2 =4.365,P ＜ 0.05 ).Conclusion Peg IFNα-2a combined with ribavirin may have higher rapid response rate than that of Peg IFNα-2b combined with ribavirin in CHC patients with high viral
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE To investigate the epidemiology of bacterial infections isolated from liver disease patients with septic shock and analyze the antimicrobial susceptibility of major pathogens to provide reference for clinical therapy. METHODS A retrospective survey was conducted in 83 liver disease patients with septic shock of our hospital from Jan 2005 to Aug 2006. Identification and susceptibility of pathogens were assayed by MicroScan Auto-4 System. RESULTS The infection was frequently identified in intra-abdominal cavity (73.5%),blood stream (24.1%) or respiratory tract (13.3%). The top 3 pathogens were Escherichia coli (36.6%),Klebsiella pneumoniae (15.9%) and Staphylococcus aureus (6.1%). Gram-negative bacilli were usually resistant to multiple antimicrobial agents,but less resistant to imipenem,levofloxacin or piperacillin-tazobactam. Extended-spectrum ?-lactamases (ESBLs) positive rates of E. coli and K. pneumoniae were 53.3% and 7.7%. Asprergillus and Candida glabrata were the predominant pathogens from fungal infections,and they were mostly resistant to fluconazole. CONCLUSIONS Pathogens of liver disease patients with septic shock are mostly multi-drug resistant. The microbiological surveillance is important for guiding clinical therapy.
ABSTRACT
Objective To develop a rapid, accurate, specific method to detect causative agent of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). Methods Specific primers and probe were designed based on highly conserved VP1 region of enterovirus 71, coxsackie virus A16 and enterovirus. The sensitivity and specificity of the real-time RT-PCR was evaluated with 35 stool samples collected from pediatric patients with suspected HFMD and 20 clinical samples from health pediatric patients. Results Out of 35 clinical samples from suspected HFMD, 35 samples were identified as positive for enterovirus, 25 clinical samples were identified as positive for enterovirus 71, 8 clinical samples were identified as positive for coxsackie virus A16, among which 3 clinical samples were identified as positive for enterovirus 71 and coxsackie virus A16. The clinical diagnostic accordance rate is 85.71%. Out of 20 clinical samples from normal pediatric patients, 5 clinical samples were identified as positive for enterovirus, 20 clinical samples were negative for enterovirns 71 and coxsackie virus AI6. Conclusion Our results indicate real-time RT-PCR offers a rapid, sensitive, specific and cheap method to detect pathogen of HFMD from clinical specimens.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: We aimed to do a meta-analysis of the existing literature to assess the accuracy of prostate cancer studies which use magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) as a diagnostic tool. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Prospectively, independent, blind studies were selected from the Cochrane library, Pubmed, and other network databases. The criteria for inclusion and exclusion in this study referenced the criteria of diagnostic research published by the Cochrane center. The statistical analysis was adopted by using Meta-Test version 6.0. Using the homogeneity test, a statistical effect model was chosen to calculate different pooled weighted values of sensitivity, specificity, and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). The summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves method was used to assess the results. RESULTS: We chose two cut-off values (0.75 and 0.86) as the diagnostic criteria for discriminating between benign and malignant. In the first diagnostic criterion, the pooled weighted sensitivity, specificity, and corresponding 95% CI (expressed as area under curve [AUC]) were 0.82 (0.73, 0.89), 0.68 (0.58, 0.76), and 83.4% (74.97, 91.83). In the second criterion, the pooled weighted sensitivity, specificity, and corresponding 95% CI were 0.64 (0.55, 0.72), 0.86 (0.79, 0.91) and 82.7% (68.73, 96.68). CONCLUSION: As a new method in the diagnostic of prostate cancer, MRS has a better applied value compared to other common modalities. Ultimately, large scale RCT (randomized controlled trial) randomized controlled trial studies are necessary to assess its clinical value.
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy , Prospective Studies , Prostatic Neoplasms/diagnosis , ROC Curve , Sensitivity and SpecificityABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the distribution and virologic characteristics of HBV genotypes,and possible association with the severity of liver disease.Methods HBV genotype was determined,using oligonuleotides(oligo) microarray method.Results 37patients were differentiated as genotype B,69 genotype C.The clinical manifestations demonstrated that the serum lever of HBVDNA and HBeAg positive rate in patients of genotype C was 7.02?1.26 and 60.87% higher than 5.62?1.02and 32.43% in those of genotype B,the serum HBeAb positive rate in patients of genotype B was 67.57% higher than 39.13% in those of genotype C.The occurrence rates of those developed to chronic hepatitis B liver cirrhosis and hepatoma in those of genotype C were 46.38%,30.44% and 11.59% highter than that of 40.54%,13.51%and 8.11% in those of genotype B.Patients with genotype B were much younger than those with genotype C.Conclusions Genotype B and C exsited in Hangzhou,genotype C is a predominated genotype.The serum leverl of HBVDNA in those of genotype C is highter than that of genotype B.The positive rate of HBeAg in those of genotype B is highter than that of genotype C.The damage to liver induced by genotype C is severe than that of genotype B.
ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the distribution of hepatitis B virus genotypes in Hangzhou area and preliminarily identify and evaluate the applied characteristics of oligonuleotides(oligo)microarray for genotyping hepatitis B virus(HBV).Methods HBV PCR products were hybridized with oligonucleotide probes,which were prestablized on the chip.The hybridized results were colorized.According to the hybridization signal and the corresponding probe sequence,HBV genotype was determined.Results Of the 106 HBV DNA positive patients 37(34.91%)were genotype B,and 69(65.09%)were genotype C,No genotype A,E and F were found in the studied subjects.Conclusions HBV genotype B and C exsited in Hangzhou No HBV genotype A,D,E and F were found in the studied subjects.We should take further investigation for HBV genotypes by enlarging study population.The advantages of this assay are sensitive accurate,fast and economical when using it for HBV genotype test comparing with other relative methods.