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Real-world data on the effectiveness of glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (GLE/PIB) for patients with HCV infection and compensated cirrhosis is limited, especially for the 8-week regimen and in an Asian population. This retrospective study enrolled 159 consecutive patients with HCV and compensated cirrhosis who were treated with GLE/PIB at a single center in Taiwan. Sustained virological response (SVR) and adverse events (AEs) were evaluated. Among the 159 patients, 91 and 68 were treated with GLE/PIB for 8 and 12 weeks, respectively. In the per protocol analysis, both the 8- and 12-week groups achieved 100% SVR (87/87 vs. 64/64); and in the evaluable population analysis, 95.6% (87/91) of the 8-week group and 94.1% (64/68) of the 12-week group achieved SVR. The most commonly reported AEs, which included pruritus (15.4% vs. 26.5%), abdominal discomfort (9.9% vs. 5.9%), and skin rash (5.5% vs. 5.9%), were mild for the 8- and 12-week groups. Two patients in the 8-week group exhibited total bilirubin elevation over three times the upper normal limit. One of these two patients discontinued GLE/PIB treatment after 2 weeks but still achieved SVR. Both 8- and 12-week GLE/PIB treatments are safe and effective for patients of Taiwanese ethnicity with HCV and compensated cirrhosis.

A simple ring laser technique of two-stage gain-clamped long-wavelength band erbium-doped fiber amplifier is investigated. The ring laser light is excluded at the output end and noise-figure degradation can be reduced due to the counterpropagating partial gain-clamping in the second stage. The laser mechanism is achieved by the C/L-band wavelength-division multiplexer instead of a tunable bandpass filter and an optical circulator at the output end, which were often used in the previous counterpropagating ring laser architectures, and thus, this design is cost-effective. The gain-clamping of long-wavelength band (1559-1606.2 nm) in our configuration is demonstrated experimentally for the saturating tone (1587.6 nm) power up to -2 dBm. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]