Selecting Treatment Modality for Small Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Radiofrequency Ablation, Percutaneous Alcohol and Acetic Acid Injection

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary hepatic Malignancy worldwide and is the leading cause of death in patients with cirrhosis. In early-stage tumors, potential curative therapies have been used including ablative therapies using percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI), percutaneous acetic acid injection (PAI) or radiofrequency ablation (RFA); surgical resection and liver transplantation. RFA is more effective and safer than other local ablative therapy modalities. RFA should be considered as the first-line treatment for patients with small HCC, i.e. sized less than 5 cm; preferably less than or equal to 3 cm since they are not suitable for liver resection or liver transplantation. RFA should also be compared with transarterial embolization, which currently has been considered as the standard HCC therapy in some countries. It has been reported that the combination of RFA and embolization treatment may reduce the early and late recurrence rate

Hepatitis B Virus Double Mutations is There Any Role in Pathogenesis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Young Patients

Background: The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) below age 40 years old in our institution were relatively high compared with other institutions in Asia. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) basal core promoter (BCP) double mutations correspond with increasing age. The aim of this study was to know if there was any role of HBV double mutations in young HCC patients. Method: A descriptive study was performed on HBV related HCC patients in Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital in May 2006-November 2008. Patient were recruited consecutively and divided in to two groups, below 40 and above 40 years old. The genotypes were examined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. The alpha feto protein (AFP) values were diagnosed based on ELISA method. The BCP A1762T/G1764A double mutations were examined by direct sequencing. Results: There were 49 HBV related HCC samples consist of 14 (28.5%) samples with age below 40 years old and 35 (71.5%) samples with age above 40 years old. We only found two genotype, genotype B was dominant in patients with HBV related HCC compare to genotype C, 43 (88%) and 6 (12%) respectively. The increasing of AFP level above 400 ng/mL was only found in about half of the samples, 7 (50%) < 40 years old, 19 (54%) > 40 years old. Double mutations of A1762T/G1764A in BCP occurred in 5 (36%) < 40 years old, 15 (43%) > 40 years old. Conclusion: The incidence of HBV related HCC in young patients were relatively high. The proportion of patients with AFP level < 400 ng/mL in patients below 40 years old were higher compared to patients above 40 years

Cardiac Tamponade Due to Liver Amebiasis Rupture

Amebiasis is common cases in Asia, Africa, and South Africa. Liver amebiasis has become a serious problem worldwide especially in health and social aspect. The protozoa named Entamoeba histolytica was easily found in area with poor sanitation, low socioeconomic status, and poor nutrition status. The incidence of amebiasis in several hospitals in Indonesia is 5-15% per year. Epidemiological observation showed the comparison of incidence among male and female population and it was approximately 3 : 1 until 22 : 1 with male predominance. The potential age suffered from amebiasis is around 20 - 50 years old. The route of infection spread to oral-fecal and oral-anal-fecal. The most common complication is abscess rupture (5-15.6%). Rupture may be located in pleural cavity, pericardial cavity, lung, bowel, intraperitoneal, and skin. Rupture of liver amebias spread to pleural and pericardial cavity is a rare case and frequently under reported. This case report illustrates a 40-year-old male with cardiac tamponade due to rupture of liver amebiasis. Patient's was admitted with chief complaint of shortness of breath, positive Beck's triad, hepatomegaly, pleural effusion, liver abscess on sonography and swinging of heart on echocardiography. This patient was treated with metronidazole as a drug of choice, and pericardiocentesis for the cardiac tamponade

Abdominal Tuberculosis: Diagnostic and Management Problems

Abdominal tuberculosis, as one of the manifestations of extrapulmonary tuberculosis, may involve gastrointestinal tract, peritoneum, mesenteric lymph nodes, liver, and also spleen. Most patients have constitutional symptoms of fever, pain, diarrhea, constipation, alternating constipation and diarrhea, weight loss, anorexia and malaise. It also has an insidious course without any specific laboratory, radiological or clinical findings and makes it difficult to diagnosis. Anti tuberculosis treatments with initiation phase for 2 months and continue with continuation phase for 7 months is effective. Steroids may be used to reduce acute inflammation and limit delayed fibrotic complications. We report a male patient with abdominal tuberculosis involving peritoneum, liver, colon, paraaorta lymph nodes, and spleen, which at first suggested as a Malignancy. Drug induced hepatitis due to anti tuberculosis drug during treatment was emerged and substituted with other regimen. After given anti tuberculosis treatment and steroid as adjunctive treatment, the clinical condition of patient was improved

Efficacy and Safety of In-Asia-manufactured Interferon Alpha-2b in Combination with Ribavirin for Therapy of Naïve Chronic Hepatitis C Patients: a Multicenter, Prospective, Open-Label Trial

Background: An open-label, multi center and non-comparative study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a more affordable in-Asia-manufactured interferon á-2b product in combination with ribavirin to treat naïve chronic hepatitis C patients. Method: Thirty chronic naïve hepatitis C patients were treated with in-Asia-manufactured interferon a-2b subcutaneously 3 MIU thrice weekly and ribavirin 800-1,200 mg daily for 48 weeks. Follow-up was done until 24 weeks after the end of treatment. Efficacy was assessed by examining serologic and biochemical parameters at pre and post-treatment. Safety was assessed by evaluating clinical symptoms and laboratory parameters. Results: The virological response and sustained virological response rates of all Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) genotypes were 83.3% and 76.7% respectively. Post-treatment, 80% patients had significant alanine transaminase (ALT) decreased into normal level and remained normal in 76.7% patients at 24th week follow up period. At that time, the ALT level and sustained virological response were lower in HCV genotypes 1 and 4 than in non-1 and non-4 genotypes. The most frequent adverse event was flu-like syndrome. Conclusion: The efficacy and safety study on combination therapy of in-Asia-manufactured interferon a-2b and ribavirin has shown a good result based on the current standard of interferon alpha and ribavirin combination therapy

Efficacy of Combination Sofosbuvir, Pegylated-Interferon, and Ribavirin for Treatment of Hepatitis C Virus Genotype 1 Infection in Indonesia

Background: The presence of direct-acting antiviral (DAA) has improved the treatment of HCV infection and making it more preferable than Pegylated-interferon (PegIFN) and Ribavirin (RBV) based treatment. However, treatment with all DAA combination regimen is limited and expensive in low health care affordability country including Indonesia. The appearance of generic sofosbuvir (SOF) facilitate the utilization of SOF plus PegINF with or withour RBV combination. Therefore, in this study we assessed the efficacy of SOF+RBV and SOF+RBV+PegINF combination for treatment of chronic hepatitis C infections patient with genotype 1 in IndonesiaMethod: We performed retrospective study comprising 128 patients in Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital with chronic hepatitis C, genotype 1, infection. 36 patients was treated with PegINF+SOF+RBV and 92 patients was treated with SOF+RBV with the duration of therapy was 12 and 24 weeks in both arms. The primary endpoint was sustained virologic response after treatment completion (SVR12)Results: In the end of treatment, 99.2% patients achieved undetected HCV RNA in 12 weeks and 24 weeks duration of therapy (100% in PegINF+SOF+RBV group and 98.9% in SOF+RBV group). The SVR12 of PegINF+SOF+RBV reach 100% meanwhile The SVR12 of SOF+RBV reach 88%.  No different in SVR12 between cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic patient in PegINF+SOF+RBV group while in SOF+RBV group, the SVR12 was lower in cirrhotic patients (82.9%) compared to non-cirrhotic patients (92.2%). In multivariate analysis, HIV co-infection is associated with lower SVR12 in SOF+RBV group.Conclusion: 12 weeks and 24 weeks of PegINF+SOF+RBV and SOF+RBV is effective in the treatment of genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C infectio

Alpha-1-acid glycoprotein as potential biomarker for alpha-fetoprotein-low hepatocellular carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The outcome of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains poor because of late diagnosis. We determined the performances of α -1-acid glycoprotein (AAG) and des-γ-carboxy prothrombin (DCP) for the diagnosis of HCC, especially for α-fetoprotein (AFP)-low HCC.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Of the 220 patients included in this retrospective study, 124 had HCC, and 61 (49%) of these were AFP-low HCC (AFP ≤ 20 ng/mL). The remaining 96 patients, including 49 with chronic hepatitis B or C and 47 with cirrhosis, were considered as control. Plasma AAG was analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and confirmed using Western blot technique.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>When all patients with HCC were evaluated, the area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for AAG (0.94, 95% CI: 0.91-0.97) and DCP (0.92, 95% CI: 0.88-0.95) were similar (<it>P </it>= 0.40). AAG had better area under ROC curve (0.96, 95% CI: 0.94-0.99) than DCP (0.87, 95% CI: 0.81-0.93) for AFP-low HCC (<it>P </it>< 0.05). At the specificity 95%, the sensitivity of AAG was higher in AFP-low HCC than in AFP-high HCC (82% and 62%, respectively). In contrast, higher sensitivity was obtained from DCP in discriminating HCC patients with low AFP than that in high AFP (57% and 90%, respectively).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our cross-sectional study showed that AAG was better performance in diagnosing HCC patients with low AFP, while DCP did better in those with high AFP.</p