Hepatitis: Sumberaz A

Testino G, Borro P, Sumberaz A. · Department of Specialist Medicine, San Martino Hospital, Genova, Italy; E-mail: · J Gastrointestin Liver Dis. · Pubmed #19565040 links to  free full text

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Testino G, Sumberaz A, Ancarani AO, Borro P, Ravetti G, Ansaldi F, Andorno E, Gentile R, Icardi G. · Unit of Hepatology and Alcoholic Diseases, S. Martino Hospital, Genova, Italy. · Hepatogastroenterology. · Pubmed #19579629 No free full text.

Abstract: Up to today no work has evaluated yet the importance of parameters such Body Mass Index (BMI), cholesterol, triglycerides (TGC) and hepatic percentage of steatosis in the response to therapy with Pegylated Interferon Alfa-2a and Ribavirin in patients with recurrent hepatitis C (genotype 1). 30 consecutive prospectively followed patients diagnosed with recurrent HCV were considered candidates for antiviral therapy. Qualitative and quantitative detection of HCV-RNA was performed with the Cobas Amplicor Hepatitis C Virus Test, version 2.0 and the Cobas Amplicor HCV Monitor, version 2.0 (Roche Diagnostics, Branchburgh, NJ, U.S.A.). HCV genotyping was performed by sequencing of the 5 untraslated region (5' UTR) (Visible Genetics TruGene Hepatitis Assay, Toronto, Canada). The observed distribution of BMI, cholesterol, TGC and steatosis were confirmed to be normally distributed by the one-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Goodness of fit test procedure. Comparison of BMI, cholesterol, TGC and steatosis between non responders (NR), sustained virological responders (SVR) and sustained biochemical responders (SBR) groups were analyzed by ANOVA with a post hoc Bonferroni test and correlation between variables was tested by Pearson test. The multivariate analysis was performed to estimate the chance of response on basis of the above mentioned variables. In patients with abnormal results in at least two out of four considered variables the chance of no-response was 40 times higher than that of SBR and 96 times than that of SVR. We can conclude how the management of dismetabolism, diet and exercise therapy can improve BMI, liver histology and, therefore, the response to PEG-IFN Alfa-2a and Ribavirin.

Grossi S, Sumberaz A, Gosmar M, Mattioli F, Testino G, Martelli A. · Department of Internal Medicine, Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology Unit, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy. · Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. · Pubmed #18090985 No free full text.

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Both alcohol abuse and hepatitis B or C virus infections are implicated in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma, but it is still controversial whether the pathogenetic mechanism is epigenetic or genotoxic. AIM: Considering that alcohol promotes the generation of reactive oxygen species and both viruses infect peripheral lymphocytes, in this study we investigated the occurrence of DNA fragmentation in peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with alcoholic cirrhosis and from patients with cirrhosis related to B and C viruses, and analyzed the correlation between the degree of DNA fragmentation and the Child-Pugh score used to assess the degree of hepatic insufficiency. METHODS: The study population consisted of two groups: group I involved 12 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis; group II involved 25 patients with hepatic B virus or hepatic C virus cirrhosis. The control group involved 20 healthy individuals. The degree of DNA fragmentation in peripheral blood lymphocytes was determined with the alkaline Comet assay that provides two indexes of the frequency of DNA single-strand breaks and alkali-labile sites, the tail length and the tail moment. RESULTS: Mean values of both tail length and tail moment were significantly increased (P<0.001) in lymphocytes from 12 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis and in lymphocytes from 25 patients with HBV or HCV cirrhosis, as compared with average tail length and tail moment values of lymphocytes from 20 healthy individuals. A significant positive correlation was found to exist between the degree of DNA fragmentation present in lymphocytes of each of the 37 patients with alcoholic or viral cirrhosis and the corresponding value of the Child-Pugh score. CONCLUSION: The occurrence of DNA fragmentation in peripheral blood lymphocytes reflects a direct genotoxic effect of either alcohol or HBV and HCV and suggests that the same genotoxic effect may operate in the liver and contribute to hepatocarcinogenesis.

Testino G, Sumberaz A. · No affiliation provided · Liver Int. · Pubmed #17311627 No free full text.

This publication has no abstract.

Testino G, Sumberaz A, Ravetti G, Gentile R, Ansaldi F, Icardi G. · No affiliation provided · Dig Liver Dis. · Pubmed #16945599 No free full text.

This publication has no abstract.