Clinical and pathological characteristics of chronic hepatitis B patients with normal alanine aminotransferase and not receiving antiviral therapy / 中华微生物学和免疫学杂志

Objective:To analyze the clinical and pathological characteristics of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and not receiving antiviral therapy.Methods:This study retrospectively included CHB patients diagnosed by liver biopsy at the Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University from January 2008 to December 2022. According to the HBV DNA and HBeAg status of "immune tolerance period and immune control period", these patients were divided into three groups: chronic HBV carrier group, inactive HBsAg carrier group and indeterminate group including the patients that did not meet the inclusion criteria of the above two groups. Kruskal-Wallis H test was used for comparison of continuous data between multiple groups. Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison of continuous data and ordered categorical data between two groups. Chi-square test or Fisher′s exact test was used for comparison of categorical data between two groups. Results:A total of 284 CHB patients with normal ALT were enrolled. There were 64, 88 and 132 cases in the chronic HBV carrier group, inactive HBsAg carrier group and indeterminate group, respectively. Histopathological analysis revealed that there were 182 (64.08%) cases with pathological inflammation grade (G) and/or fibrosis stage (S)≥2, 155 (54.58%) with S≥2 and 120 (42.25%) with G≥2. The proportion of patients with G and/or S≥2 in the indeterminate group [70.45% (93/132)] was higher than that in the chronic HBV carrier group [48.44% (31/64)] and inactive HBsAg carrier group [65.91% (58/88)] (both P<0.05). Patient′s age and the ratio of patients with S≥2 in the chronic HBV carrier group [33 years old, 39.06% (25/64)] were smaller than those in the inactive HBsAg carrier group [39 years old, 56.82% (50/88)] and the indeterminate group [39 years old, 60.61% (80/132)] (all P<0.05). Patients in the inactive HBsAg carrier group (19 U/L) had lower ALT levels than those in the chronic HBV carrier group (26 U/L) and the indeterminate group (23 U/L) (both P<0.05). The proportion of patients with cytoplasmic/cytoplasmic nuclear-type HBcAg was higher in patients with G and/or S≥2 than in patients with G and S<2 [73.08% (57/78) vs 32.08% (17/53), P<0.05], and the proportion of patients with cytoplasmic/cytoplasmic nuclear-type HBcAg increased gradually with age. The proportion of patients with cytoplasmic/cytoplasmic nuclear-type HBcAg was higher in patients with G and/or S≥2 than in patients with G and S<2 in the chronic HBV carrier status and indeterminate groups [93.33% (28/30) vs 43.33%(13/30), P<0.05; 59.46% (22/37) vs 12.50% (2/16); both P<0.05]. There was a statistically significant difference in the incidence of significant liver injury between patients≤ 30 years old and >30 years old [52.7% (39/74) vs 68.1% (143/210), P<0.05]. Conclusions:Significant liver injury occurred in 64.08% (182/284) of CHB patients with normal ALT not receiving antiviral therapy, which required the attention of clinicians. Among CHB patients with normal ALT, the expression site of HBcAg in hepatocytes was related to the occurrence of significant liver injury and could be expected to serve as an important indicator for predicting the patient′s status and the necessity of antiviral treatment. CHB patients with positive HBV DNA who were older than 30 years required antiviral treatment, and CHB patients≤30 years with normal ALT and significant hepatic tissue damage also required antiviral treatment.

Clinical features of Wilson's disease: An analysis of 83 cases / 临床肝胆病杂志

Objective To summarize the clinical features of patients with Wilson's disease (WD). Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 83 patients with WD who were admitted to The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University from April 2013 to August 2021, including clinical manifestations, Imaging examinations, laboratory examinations, liver histopathological examinations, and ATP7B gene testing results. The patients were divided into groups based on different clinical types. A one-way analysis of variance was used for comparison between groups. Results The youngest age was 3 years for the 83 patients with WD, among whom 39 (46.99%) had an age of ≤18 years, with a mean age of 21.16±14.87 years for all 83 patients. Of all patients, 63.86% had liver-type WD, 31 patients (37.35%) had developed liver cirrhosis at the time of consultation, and 5 patients (6.2%) attended the hospital due to acute or acute-on-chronic liver failure. Of all patients, 62(74.69%) were positive for corneal K-F ring, and the positive rate of K-F ring was 66.04% in the patients with liver-type WD. Among the 83 patients, 79(95.18%) had a reduction in blood ceruloplasmin, and 73(87.95%) had an increase in 24-hour urine copper. The liver histopathological results of 25 patients showed varying degrees of inflammation, fibrosis, steatosis, and copper particle deposition in liver tissue. The ATP7B gene testing results of 25 patients showed that c.2333G > T/p.R778L of exon 8 was the most common mutation site. Conclusion Most patients with WD have the manifestation of liver diseases, and the examinations of corneal K-F ring, serum ceruloplasmin, and 24-h urine copper have their own limitations. Liver pathology and ATP7B gene testing can be performed when it is unable to make a confirmed diagnosis.

Clinical and pathological features of children with glycogen storage disease: An analysis of 10 cases / 临床肝胆病杂志

Objective To investigate the clinical and pathological features of children with glycogen storage disease (GSD). Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for ten children with GSD who were admitted to the Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University and The Fifth Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital from January 2002 to January 2022, based on medical history, liver biochemistry, and liver biopsy, and population characteristics, clinical manifestations, biochemical parameters, and liver histopathological characteristics were compared and analyzed. Results All ten children had developmental retardation and a short stature, with the manifestations of abnormal liver function, mild weakness, poor appetite, yellow urine, and yellow eyes, and four children had hepatosplenomegaly. Among the ten children, six had the clinical manifestations of hypoglycemia, and one had bilateral gastrocnemius hypertrophy and positive Gower sign. Two children had positive CMV IgG. Liver histopathological manifestations included diffuse enlargement of hepatocytes, light cytoplasm, and small nucleus in the middle like plant cells, with or without fibrous tissue proliferation. Conclusion Most patients with GSD have developmental retardation and abnormal aminotransferases, and liver pathological examination shows specific pathological features.

Research on Antidepressant Mechanism Based on Regulation of Neurotransmitter in Chinese Materia Medica / 世界科学技术-中医药现代化

Depression,which is a common mental disorder with complex causes,has been a disease with high morbidity and mortality rate.The theory of neurobiochemistry,which is highly appreciated by clinical pharmacology,is used to illuminate the pathogenesis of depression.The theory shows that neurotransmitter imbalance is one of the important factors for depression.Chinese materia medica (CMM) and its extract,as well as Chinese medicine compound have unique advantages with little side effect,multicomponent,multiple target point and multi-effect in anti-depression treatment.In this study,we mainly reviewed the research progress of CMM and its compound in regulating neurotransmitter,which will provide scientific basis for the clinical application of CMM in anti-depression treatment.

Clinical study on FibroTouch and multi-parameter model for diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the clinical application and related factors of FibroTouch in the diagnosis of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease through comparison of the specificity and sensitivity of FibroTouch and multi-parameter models, and to identify whether FibroTouch is a more accurate and safe method in diagnosis of liver fibrosis and evaluation of the therapeutic effect.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 190 patients with chronic liver disease were performed liver biopsy and underwent liver stiffness measurement (LSM) using FibroTouch in department of Traditional and Western Medical Hepatology, Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University from January 2014 to February 2015. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and total bilirubin (TBIL) were tested by enzymic method with automatic biochemistry analyzer. Blood platelet counts were detected by automatic blood cell analyzer. AST-to-PLT ratio index (APRI) and fibrosis index based on the 4 factor (FIB-4) were calculated. The diagnostic values of FibroTouch, APRI and FIB-4 for liver fibrosis degree were calculated and compared by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The related factors of LSM were analyzed by Spearman analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There was significant correlation between LSM and histological fibrosis (r=0.804, P=0.000). The area under ROC curve of LSM for S(≥2, S≥3 and S=4 was 0.894, 0.938 and 0.961, respectively, which was significantly higher than APRI (0.678, 0.698 and 0.658) and FIB-4 (0.765, 0.785 and 0.775). On Spearman analysis, LSM was positively correlated with age, ALT, AST, TBIL ((≥2×ULN) and the grade of liver inflammation (r=0.309, 0.558, 0.504, 0.492 and 0.532, respectively) but negatively with PLT (r=-0.444), (all P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>LSM is a convenient and reliable approach for diagnosis of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease. The sensitivity and specificity of Fibrotouch in diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis is superior to APRI and FIB-4, and age, high level ofALT, AST and TBIL (≥2×ULN) were independent predictors of LSM inaccuracy.</p>

Molecular identification in genus of Lilium based on DNA barcoding / 药学学报

To establish a new method for identifying genus of Lilium by DNA barcoding technology, ITS, ITS2, psbA-trnH, matK and rbcL sequences were analyzed in term of variation of inter- and intra-species, barcoding gap, neighbor-joining tree to distinguish genus of Lilium based on 978 sequences from experimental and GenBank database, and identification efficiency was evaluated by Nearest distance and BLAST1 methods. The results showed that DNA barcoding could identify different species in genus of Lilium. ITS sequence performed higher identification efficiency, and had significant difference between intra- and inter-species. And NJ tree could also divide species into different clades. Results indicate that DNA barcoding can identify genus of Lilium accurately. ITS sequence can be the optimal barcode to identify species of Lilium.