Short-term entecavir therapy of chronic severe hepatitis B

BACKGROUND: Chronic severe hepatitis B patients often have limited survival. This investigation aimed to evaluate the short-term effects of nucleoside analog therapy on chronic severe hepatitis B. METHODS: We retrospectively, randomly collected the data of 129 chronic severe hepatitis B patients: 55 were treated with entecavir, and the remaining 74 were not treated with nucleoside analogues. RESULTS: No significant difference in short-term survival rate was found between the group treated with entecavir and that treated without nucleoside analogues. Although entecavir greatly reduced HBV replication in different periods of therapy (P<0.001), the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score and liver function (alanine aminotransferase, albumin, bilirubin, prothrombin time) showed no significant change. No significant differences were found in MELD scores and liver function in patients with different HBV DNA levels (<= 10(4) copies/ml, >10(4) to <10(6) copies/ml, >= 10(6) copies/ml). Nor correlation was observed between HBV DNA levels and MELD scores in different periods of therapy (P>0.05). The HBV DNA levels of patients who survived for over 3 months or less than 3 months were not significantly different either. However, the MELD score and parameters of liver function (albumin, bilirubin, prothrombin time) were different between the two groups (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that short-term suppression of HBV replication may not slow down the progression of liver failure in patients with chronic severe hepatitis B.

Prognostic factors for chronic severe hepatitis and construction of a prognostic model

BACKGROUND: Chronic severe hepatitis is a serious illness with a high mortality rate. Discussion of prognostic judgment criteria for chronic severe hepatitis is of great value in clinical guidance. This study was designed to investigate the clinical and laboratory indices affecting the prognosis of chronic severe hepatitis and construct a prognostic model. METHODS: The clinical and laboratory indices of 213 patients with chronic severe hepatitis within 24 hours after diagnosis were analyzed retrospectively. Death or survival was limited to within 3 months after diagnosis. RESULTS: The mortality of all patients was 47.42%. Compared with the survival group, the age, basis of hepatocirrhosis, infection, degree of hepatic encephalopathy (HE) and the levels of total bilirubin (TBil), total cholesterol (CHO), cholinesterase (CHE), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), blood creatinine (Cr), blood sodium ion (Na), peripheral blood leukocytes (WBC), alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), international normalized ratio (INR) of blood coagulation and prothrombin time (PT) were significantly different in the group who died, but the levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), albumin (ALB) and hemoglobin (HGB) were not different between the two groups. At the same time, a regression model, Logit (P)=1.573xAge+1.338xHE-1.608xCHO+0.011xCr-0.109xNa+1.298xINR+11.057, was constructed by logistic regression analysis and the prognostic value of the model was higher than that of the MELD score. CONCLUSIONS: Multivariate analysis excels univariate anlysis in the prognosis of chronic severe hepatitis, and the regression model is of significant value in the prognosis of this disease.

Antiviral therapy with nucleos(t)ide analogues for severe chronic hepatitis B

To the Editor:I read the paper by Chen et al[1]with great interest.The authors performed a retrospective study to evaluate the short-term efficacy of antiviral therapy with

Model for end-stage liver disease-sodium predicts prognosis in patients with chronic severe hepatitis B

Background Serum sodium predicts prognosis in chronic severe hepatitis B and may improve the prognostic accuracy of the model for end-stage liver disease （MELD） score, but the available information is limited. The present study was undertaken to study the clinical use of the serum sodium incorporated MELD （MELD-Na） and assess its validity by the concordance （c）-statistics in predicting the prognosis of the patient with chronic severe hepatitis B.Methods A total of 426 adult patients with a diagnosis of chronic severe hepatitis B between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2007 at a single center were studied. The scores of serum sodium, MELD, MELD-Na, and ΔMELD-Na （ΔMELD-Na=MELD-Na at 14 days after medical treatment -MELD-Na score on admission） of the patients with chronic severe hepatitis B were calculated. The 3-month mortality in the patients was measured, and the validity of the models was determined by means of the concordance （c） statistics.Results The average MELD, MELD-Na scores of survival group were 25.70±5.08 and 26.60±6.90, and those of dead group were 35.60±6.78 and 42.80±9.57 on admission. There was a significant difference in MELD and MELD-Na between the survival and dead groups （P 〈0.01）. The average △MELD-Na score of the survival group was -0.97±3.51, and that of the dead group was 3.45±2.38 at 2 weeks after the treatment. There was a significant difference in △MELD-Na between the survival and dead groups （P 〈0.01）. The areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curves of Na, MELD and MELD-Na for the occurrence of death in 3 months were 0.742, 0.875 and 0.922. The 3-month mortality of the MELD-Na scores group 〈25, 25-30, 31-34, 35-40 and 〉40 were 2.0%, 5.4%, 35.4%, 53.8 % and 86.9%, respectively. There was a significant difference in the 3-month mortality between the five groups （P 〈0.05）. The 3-month mortality of the △MELD-Na〉0 group was 65.9%, and that of the △MELD-Na ≤0 group was 15.8%; there was a significant difference in the 3-month mortality between the two groups （P 〈0.05）.Conclusions MELD-Na score is a valid model to predict the 3-month mortality in patients with chronic severe hepatitis B. △MELD-Na is a clinically useful parameter for predicting the therapeutic effect of chronic severe hepatitis B.

Effect of medical ozone therapy on renal blood flow and renal function of patients with chronic severe hepatitis

Background Medical ozone therapy system was reported to have certain effects on the treatment of severe hepatitis, but its mechanism is not very clear. One of the causes of death of severe hepatitis is complication of renal damage or hepatorenal syndrome. The present study aimed to observe effects of medical ozone therapy system on plasma renin activity （PRA）, angiotensin II （All）, aldosterone （ALD）, renal blood flow and renal function of patients with chronic severe hepatitis and explore mechanisms of medical ozone therapy in the treatment of severe hepatitis. Methods Eighty-five cases with chronic severe hepatitis were randomly divided into ozone therapy group （43 cases） and control group （42 cases）. The patients in the ozone therapy group were treated with basic treatments plus ozone therapy system. Basic autohemotherapy was used. One hundred milliliter venous blood was drawn from each patient, and was mixed with 100 ml （35 pg/ml） medical ozone and then was returned the blood to the patient intravenously, once every other day for 20 days. Only the basic treatments were given to the control group. PRA, All, ALD, renal blood flow and damage to renal function of the two groups before treatment and 20 days after treatment were compared. Survival rates were also compared. Results Twenty days after the treatment, in ozone therapy group, PRA was （1.31±0.12） ng.m^-1.h^1, All （111.25±17.35） pg/ml, ALD （251.31±22.60） pg/ml, which decreased significantly compared with those before treatment （PRA （2.23±0.13） ng.ml^-1.h^-1, All （155.18±19.13） pg/ml, ALD （405.31±29.88） pg/ml, t=4.67-14.23, P 〈0.01 ）, also lower than those of control group 20 days after the treatment （PRA （2.02±0.11） ng.ml^-1.h^-1, All （162.21±15.32） pg/ml, ALD （401.20±35.02） pg/ml, t=4.97-15.61, P 〈0.01）; renal blood flow was （175.15±28.20） ml/min, which increased compared with that before the treatment （（125.68±21.25） ml/min） and was higher than that of control group 20 days after the treatment （（128.59±23.15） ml/min, t=4.78, 4.61, P 〈0.01）. Renal damage occurred in 2 cases （5%） in ozone therapy group, less than that in control group （9 cases, 21%） （X^2=5.295, P 〈0.05）. Thirty-three cases （77%） in ozone therapy group vs. 16 cases （38%） in control group survived （X^2=12.993, P 〈0.01 ）. Conclusions Basic treatment plus medical ozone therapy for patients with chronic severe hepatitis could decrease PRA, All and ALD levels significantly increase renal blood flow, prevent renal damage to certain extent and improve survival rate of the patients.

Assessment of prognosis and curative effect in patients with chronic severe hepatitis using the model for end-stage liver disease scores

Severe hepatitis is the most severe liver disease, with poor prognosis and high mortality. We explored the practical use of the model for end-stage liver disease （MELD） on clinical and the molecular adsorbents recirculating system （MARS） on chronic severe hepatitis to predict the short-term prognosis of patients with chronic severe hepatitis using the MELD score and the curative effect of MARS treatment.