that vascular findings in AIP improve in most patients who receive corticosteroid treatment is interesting and points towards reversibility of such changes, at least in a subset of patients. These promising results should now be confirmed by future studies. “
“To examine the effect of nucleoside analog (NA) therapy on clinical outcome in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who underwent curative therapy. A total of 131 patients with HBV-related HCC who underwent curative therapy were analyzed. They were divided into an NA group who received NA therapy (n = 99, see more group A) and a control group (n = 32, group B). Group A was further

classified into two groups of patients who either received NA therapy before HCC therapy (n = 34, group Aa) or who received NA therapy with initial HCC BMN 673 order therapy (n = 65, group Ab). Overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were compared in the three groups. The 1- and 3-year cumulative OS rates were both in group Aa, 100% and 88.0%

in group Ab, and 100% and 75.7% in group B (overall significance, P = 0.002), respectively. The corresponding RFS rates were 93.1% and 36.0% in group Aa, 78.3% and 45.7% in group Ab, and 78.0% and 38.0% in group B (overall significance, P = 0.734), respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that being part of group Aa (P < 0.001) or group Ab (P < 0.001) and having albumin levels of 4.0 g/dL or more (P = 0.040) were significantly associated with Megestrol Acetate OS, while HCC stage (P = 0.001) and hepatitis B e-antigen positivity (P < 0.001) were independent predictors linked to RFS. NA therapy in patients with HBV-related HCC may improve survival after curative therapy. "
“High-quality artifact-free ultrasound images can now be produced by a portable machine. Being relatively cheap and non-invasive, ultrasound is widely accepted as the first-line investigation for patients with abdominal symptoms. A negative ultrasound is often regarded as the absence of major

abdominal conditions. Positive findings on ultrasound can guide further imaging (CT/MRI) for better characterization and delineation of the underlying disease. Specific diagnosis of certain disease entities can sometimes be made based on characteristic ultrasound features. The real-time nature of ultrasound can assist correlation with clinical symptoms and provide imaging guidance to obtain tissue biopsy. New advances in technique (contrast-enhanced ultrasound and ultrasound elastography) not only provide morphological but also functional assessment. “
“We investigated left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) and its relationship with circulatory function and prognosis in cirrhosis with portal hypertension and normal creatinine.