Safety and efficacy of in vitro fertilisation in patients with chronic liver disease and liver transplantation recipients.

Background & Aims: Chronic liver disease and liver transplantation (LT) can delay both timing and ability of women to conceive. With increased awareness and availability of in vitro fertilisation (IVF), the need for accurate counselling is paramount. To date, minimal data exist on outcomes of IVF in patients with chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, or post-LT.

Bacterial Infection in Patients with Cirrhosis: Don't Get Bugged to Death.

Bacterial infection remains a leading cause of mortality and morbidity for patients with cirrhosis, with hospitalization, alterations in the intestinal microbiota, and therapeutic drugs all implicated in its development. Bacterial infections also remain the most common precipitant of acute-on-chronic liver failure, with infection occurring as a direct consequence of the progression of this syndrome. Furthermore, recent epidemiological analyses have demonstrated that infections due to multidrug-resistant bacteria are occurring with increasing frequency in patients with cirrhosis.

Severe Symptomatic Primary CMV Infection in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients with Low Population Seroprevalence.

Background: Cytomegalovirus disease in patients with inflammatory bowel disease is frequently the result of viral reactivation. Conversely, primary CMV infection is believed to be uncommon in immunocompetent adults due to high population seroprevalence.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the frequency and severity of primary cytomegalovirus infection in an adult cohort of IBD patients.

Non-Invasive Markers (ALBI and APRI) Predict Pregnancy Outcomes in Women With Chronic Liver Disease.

Objectives: Rates of pregnancy in women with cirrhosis are increasing. Risk of hepatic decompensation during pregnancy, therefore, merits tailored obstetric and hepatology care. Prognostic markers that determine pregnancy outcomes are lacking.

Palliative care in end-stage liver disease: Time to do better?

Optimal involvement of palliative care (PC) services in the management of patients with decompensated cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease (ESLD) is limited. This may result from both ignorance and the failure to recognize the spectrum and unpredictability of the underlying liver condition. Palliative care is a branch of medicine that focuses on quality of life (QoL) by optimizing symptom management and providing psychosocial, spiritual, and practical support for both patients and their caregivers.

Successful pregnancy outcomes following liver transplantation is predicted by renal function.

Liver transplantation (LT) is a successful treatment for both acute liver failure and end-stage liver disease. The number of women of reproductive age undergoing LT is increasing. Pregnancy outcomes are favorable, but there is still a lack of prognostic markers.

Systems analysis of BCL2 protein family interactions establishes a model to predict responses to chemotherapy.

Apoptotic desensitization is a hallmark of cancer cells, but present knowledge of molecular systems controlling apoptosis has yet to provide significant prognostic insights. Here, we report findings from a systems study of the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis by BCL2 family proteins and clinical translation of its findings into a model with applications in colorectal cancer (CRC). By determining absolute protein quantifications in CRC cells and patient tumor samples, we found that BAK and BAX were expressed more highly than their antiapoptotic inhibitors.

Bid and calpains cooperate to trigger oxaliplatin-induced apoptosis of cervical carcinoma HeLa cells.

The Bcl-2 homology 3-only protein Bid is an important mediator of death receptor-induced apoptosis. Recent reports and this study suggest that Bid may also mediate genotoxic drug-induced apoptosis of various human cancer cells. Here, we characterized the role of Bid and the mechanism of Bid activation during oxaliplatin-induced apoptosis of HeLa cervical cancer cells.

Co-prescription of gastro-protectants in hospitalized patients: an analysis of what we do and what we think we do.

Background: Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) reduce the risk of upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage (UGIH) associated with the use of many medications.

Goals: To examine how clinicians perceive such risk and whether PPI co-prescribing is based on an accurate assessment.

Study Methods: Clinicians in a single teaching hospital were asked to estimate risk of UGIH and comment on PPI co-prescription in hypothetical patients.