Search

Unlabelled: THE AIM OF THE STUDY was to evaluate prospectively serum hyaluronic acid (HA) and laminin (LAM) concentration in children with chronic hepatitis B (chB) during lamivudine treatment., Material and Methods: The observation was carried out on 40 children (29 boys and 11 girls), aged 4-17 yrs with biopsy proven chB who were nonresponders to previous IFN alpha therapy. Lamivudine was given in the dose of 3-4mg/kg/day up to 100 mg/day. The concentration of HA and LAM were measured with EIA technique in serum (CORGENIX and TAKARA kits respectively) before and after 12 months of therapy., Results: After 12 months of therapy mean serum concentration of HA and LAM were lower then before treatment (20.3 +/- 13.3 vs 26.1 +/- 18.2 ng/ml, p=0.0112; 430 +/- 93 vs 455 +/- 161 ng/ml, p=NS respectively). The decrease of HA concentration was observed in subgroups of both responders and nonresponders (21.9 +/- 10.9 vs 26.1 +/- 10.6, p=NS; 20.1 +/- 13.7 vs 26.1 +/- 19.0, p=0.01 resp.)., Conclusion: The decrease of HA and LAM serum concentration may suggest that lamivudine treatment inhibits liver fibrosis. Further studies with liver morphology evaluation are needed to confirm antifibrotic effect of lamivudine in children with chB.

Unlabelled: THE AIM OF THE STUDY was evaluation of serum activity of chosen enzymes (ALT, AST, GGT and ALP) in assessment of fibrosis degree in children with chronic hepatitis B., Material and Methods: We determined serum activity of liver enzymes in 47 children aged 4-16 with biopsy-verified chronic hepatitis B, prior to interferon alpha treatment. Fibrosis stage was assessed in a blinded fashion according to Batts and Ludwig. We defined advanced fibrosis as a score =3. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis was used to calculate the power of the assays to detect advanced liver fibrosis (AccuROC, Canada)., Results: Serum GGT activity of 19 IU/I had a sensitivity of 50% and a specificity of 90% (AUC=0.7324, p=0.0391) to predict advanced fibrosis. All other enzymes did not allow a useful prediction., Conclusion: GGT is suitable serum marker to predict advanced liver fibrosis in children with chronic hepatitis B.

Unlabelled: The aim of the study was evaluation the HBeAg/antiHBe seroconversion frequency as a result of lamivudine treatment in children who are nonresponders to previous IFN-alpha therapy., Material and Methods: The observation was carried out on 41 children, aged 4-17 years, with biopsy-proven chronic hepatitis B (HBeAg+) treated with lamivudine 3-4 mg/kg/d (max. 100 mg/d) for 12 months., Results: After 6 months of lamivudine therapy 59.3% children normalized GPT activity and only 1 child (2.5%) lost HBeAg. At the end of 12 months of therapy 81.5% normalized GPT activity and 4 of them (10%) lost HBeAg and seroconverted to antiHBe. None of treated children lost HBsAg. The age, sex, pretreatment GPT activity and active histological disease were not predictors of lamivudine-induced HBeAg loss. There were no side effects of lamivudine therapy except one boy who had severe thrombocytopenia., Conclusions: The HBeAg/antiHBe seroconversion rate after one year trial of lamivudine in children with chronic hepatitis B unresponsive to previous IFN alpha therapy was 10%. The age, sex, pretreatment GPT activity and active histologic disease were not predictors of lamivudine-induced HBeAg loss.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the serum TGF-beta 1, IL-12 and IL-5 concentration in children with chronic hepatitis (ChH) B. The study included 62 children with histopathologically diagnosed chh B. The stage of fibrosis and inflammation grade were assessed according to Batts and Ludwig and Ishak et al. The control group consisted of 9 children without clinical signs of infectious and chronic diseases. Serum TGF-beta 1 concentration was significantly elevated in patients with chronic hepatitis B (p = 0.0077) as compared to controls; there were no significant differences in serum concentrations of IL-12 and IL-5 between the examined groups of children. There was also no correlation between serum concentration of the studied cytokines and the degree of fibrosis, inflammation, activity of GPT, GOT, ALP, GGTP and concentrations of bilirubin, proteins or immunoglobulins (G, A, M).