Unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhosis: survival, prognostic factors, and unexpected side effects after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization.

To evaluate the efficacy of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, the prognostic factors, and the side effects, 72 patients undergoing 170 chemoembolizations with lipiodol-mediated injection of adriamycin were investigated. The 1-, 2-, and 3-year survivals are 83, 61, and 56%, respectively. Significant prognostic factors for survival (by Mantael-Haenszel) are Child-Pugh and Okuda status (p = 0.00001 and p = 0.01 respectively), number of TACE courses (p = 0.002) and of courses completed with embolization (p = 0.05), stabilization or reduction of alpha-fetoprotein (p = 0.003), and concurrent tamoxifen treatment (p = 0.04). Side effects included fever, pain, increased serum amylase and transaminase levels, and one liver abscess with death of liver failure. In addition, mild hyperglycemia was observed in 19% of patients and severe in 8% (with one hyperosmolar diabetic coma), in the absence of pancreatic damage. In conclusion, transcatheter arterial chemoembolization is useful in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. Prognostic factors are Child-Pugh and Okuda status, number of TACE courses and of embolizations, changes of alpha-fetoprotein levels, and association with tamoxifen treatment. The development of mild to severe changes of glucose metabolism suggests that glucose tolerance should be evaluated before and glycemia strictly monitored after each TACE course.

Clinical and radiological features of bone disease in long-term (15 or more years) hemodialysis patients.

Fifteen patients on regular dialytic treatment for more than 15 years were given X-rays of the skull, spine, shoulders, wrists, pelvis and knees with the purpose of studying the principal skeletal and articular alterations due or not due to the uraemic status. Serum calcium, phosphorus, parathyroid hormone, alkaline phosphatase and basal aluminium were recorded. Osteopenia was evident in all the patients. Ten of whom (67%) showed alterations due to hyperparathyroidism. Nine patients presented the marks of dialysis spondyloarthropathy; in 14/15 cases geodes were present in the wrists, humeral heads or hip-joints; in ten patients there were multiple amyloid lesions. Two patients with serum basal aluminum above 100 micrograms/L showed the typical radiographic marks of osteomalacia. The majority of the long-term survivors showed multifactorial osteo-articular alterations resulting mainly from the combination of hyperparathyroidism and dialysis-related amyloidosis. The less frequent joint alterations were represented by arthrosis, enthesopathy and chondrocalcinosis. Disability and decreased articular mobility resulted in being mainly due to amyloid osteo-arthropathy.

[The use of intra-arterial lipiodol in assessing hepatocarcinomas treated by percutaneous alcoholization. The initial experience]. / Uso del lipiodol intra-arterioso nella valutazione degli epatocarcinomi trattati con alcolizzazione percutanea. Prime esperienze.

Eight patients with inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma were treated by means of percutaneous alcoholization of the malignancy (11 nodular lesions less than 5 cm O). Upon treatment completion they were all given intraarterial injection of lipiodol, which was followed, a week later, by a CT scan. At angiography, during the parenchymal phase, 7 of 11 nodules appeared as avascular areas, whereas in the remaining 4 cases an intense parenchymal effect was seen within the previously treated areas. Lipiodol CT scans revealed intense uptake of oily material in the 4 hypervascular lesions as well as in 1 of those with avascular appearance. In 4 lesions, pathology of bioptic specimens obtained from the areas with contrast pooling was consistent with the persistence of viable neoplastic tissue. In these patients alcoholization had therefore to be continued. Lipiodol accumulation within previously treated nodules has proved to be related to the presence of residual neoplasm. Moreover, in 2 cases, focal retention of lipiodol was very helpful for biopsy under CT guidance. According to our experience, we believe lipiodol administration followed by CT to be very useful in evaluating and staging HCCs. We nevertheless believe that the procedure should be performed only after alcoholization has been completed: this would inform us of treatment effectiveness and subsequently enable us to decide whether treatment can be discontinued.