ABSTRACT
Fibrosis is an important pathoIogicaI change in a variety of diseases and with compIicated causes. Fibrosis diseases in different organs have different causes,but the common manifestations of fibrobIast are proIiferation and coIIagen deposition that couId eventuaIIy Iead to normaI tissue damage and Ioss of function. Fibrosis in such important organs as the heart or Iung couId be Iife-threatening. There are different reguIating factors and drugs to fibrosis. Chinese medicine treatment is stiII the main method cIinicaIIy for Iiver fibrosis. Because there is no effective cure for puImonary fibrosis,treatment focuses on anti-infIammation by aIIeviating Iesion and improving kidney function. Despite the tremendous progress in fibrosis treatment,there is stiII a Iack of targeted drugs that couId cure a specific disease in a specific area. With the deveIopment of gene technoIogy,gene therapy wiII become an important treatment for this disease. This paper introduces anti-myocardiaI fibrosis drugs according to the mechanism.
ABSTRACT
During the past five years, 141 cases of liver cirrohosis were hospitalized intoour clinic. The mean age of these patients was 57.8 years old, and the ratio of male to female was 2.8 to 1. HBs antigen was positive in 16 cases, and among the patients without HBs antigen 49 cases of heavy alcoholic drinker were found. Seventy patients with liver cirrhosis were dividedinto a compensatory group and a decompensatory group according to three clinical findings, ascites, hepatic encephalopathy and bleeding from gastrointestinal tract. It was suggested that five items of biochemical data for liver function were very important on discriminating these two groups. The five items were cholinesterase, indocyanine green test, albumin, prothrombin time and erythrocyte count.<BR>Next, we studied clinical findings of eight patients with minute hepatocellular carcinoma hospitalized into our clinic during the past five years. About a definition of minute hepatocellular carcinoma, we have defined that the tumor size should be less than 3 cm in diameter. Six of these patients were male, and average age was 56.7 years old. Of these patients, five were complicated by liver cirrhosis, and only one revealed positive HBs antigen in serum. The serum alpha-fetoprotein level showed more than 400 ng/ml in three patients. And we have thought that ultrasonographic examination is most effective to diagnose minute hepatocellular carcinoma in various diagnostic imaging methods. Most of patients exhibited a decreased functional reserve in the liver, but six patients underwent hepatic resection. After operation, one patient died of acutehepatic insufficiency on the 8th day, and one died of the recurrence of tumor on the 11th month. Otherfour patients have been alive now.
