非酒精性脂肪性肝病相关心血管疾病的发病机制

非酒精性脂肪性肝病也称为代谢相关脂肪性肝病,是全球最为常见的慢性肝病。研究发现非酒精性脂肪性肝病与心血管疾病的风险增加有关,并且非酒精性脂肪性肝病本身是心血管疾病的独立危险因素。鉴于非酒精性脂肪性肝病与心血管疾病的密切关联,文章综述了连接非酒精性脂肪性肝病与心血管疾病的病理生理机制,为临床非酒精性脂肪性肝病患者心血管疾病的诊治提供了思路。     

澳门地区307例心房颤动的病因分析

目的 探讨澳门地区心房颤动的病因特征。方法 对1993～1998年本院内科住院病人中4518例发生心房颤动307例患者的病因进行分析。结果 心房颤动总发生率为6.78％,风湿性心瓣膜病心房颤动发生率为29.65％,甲状腺机能亢进症、冠心病和高血压性心脏病分别为7.06％、6.23％和6.05％。在房颤瓣膜性心脏病占房颤病因构成比16.61％;非瓣膜性心脏病占79.48％。结论 本组病人房颤发生率依次为风湿性心脏病、甲状腺机能亢进症、冠心病和高血压性心脏病、肺源性心脏病、心肌病、先天性心脏病,瓣膜性心脏病占房颤病因构成比少数,非瓣膜性心脏病占大多数;房颤并非冠心病的常见临床表现。     

Changes in laminin content in livers of patients with alcoholic liver disease

Abstract: An increase in serum laminin levels has been reported in patients with liver disease; however, the mechanisms for this increase have not yet been clarified. In the present study, the laminin content of liver biopsy specimens obtained from patients with alcoholic liver disease and nonalcoholic liver disease was determined with a one-step sandwich enzymeimmunoassay system, using monoclonal antibodies for human placental laminin. Hepatic laminin content was significantly higher in patients with liver disease than in normal controls. In alcoholic liver disease, the content in patients with mild fibrosis was lower than in patients with advanced types of alcoholic liver disease. In non-alcoholic liver disease, the hepatic laminin content tended to increase in parallel with the progression of fibrosis. The laminin content in alcoholic liver disease was significantly higher than in the corresponding type of non-alcoholic liver disease. Hepatic total collagen content increased in parallel with the progression of fibrosis in both alcoholic liver disease and non-alcoholic liver disease. The ratio of laminin to total collagen content was highest in alcoholic liver disease showing mild fibrosis and decreased in parallel with the progression of fibrosis. In contrast, the ratio was low in all types of nonalcoholic liver disease. The ratio in patients with alcoholic liver disease was significantly higher than in those with the corresponding non-alcoholic liver disease. Hepatic laminin content increased in parallel with the increase in hepatic type IV collagen in alcoholic liver disease, and the correlation was statistically significant. However, a similar correlation was not found in non-alcoholic liver disease. These results indicate that the response of laminin synthesis to alcoholic liver disease is strong in mild fibrosis and reached a plateau at a relatively early stage of fibrosis. The stimulation for laminin synthesis in non-alcoholic liver disease is different from that in alcoholic liver disease.     

Neuroproliferation in the mucosa is a feature of coeliac disease and Crohn's disease.

The pathogenesis of villous damage in coeliac disease is unknown. Change to the delicate neuromuscular core may be significant and this study stained various categories of coeliac disease and controls with neuron-specific enolase (NSE) to examine neurofilaments in the mucosa. The amount of NSE staining was evaluated using computer image analysis. The first part of the study compared coeliac disease with Crohn's disease, carcinoma, and biopsy specimens from normal subjects. There was increased NSE staining in both the coeliac disease and Crohn's disease cases but not in carcinomas or normal controls. This difference was statistically significant. The average value for the coeliac disease patients was 50% higher than that of Crohn's disease patients. The second part of the study compared treated coeliac disease with untreated coeliac disease. Treated coeliac disease cases had normal amounts of NSE staining, which were the same as normal controls. These findings suggest that neuroproliferation is a feature of coeliac disease and Crohn's disease. Both share a common feature--namely chronic inflammation--which has been occasionally associated with neuroproliferation. The fact that neuroproliferation resolves with treatment is further evidence for its association with chronic inflammation. The extra neuroproliferation seen in coeliac disease compared with Crohn's disease may contribute to the architectural abnormalities seen in coeliac disease.     

肺心病合并冠心病心电图分析

目的探讨肺心病合并冠心病心电图的特点。方法回顾我院住院病例选择肺心病和肺心病合并冠心病各120例均行同步十二导联心电图检查,必要时进行24 h动态心电图检查对比心电图的变化。结果肺心病合并冠心病组(合并组)比肺心病组心电图改变明显,两者有显著差异结论心电图及动态心电图的某些特殊改变能提示肺心病合并冠心病。     

Crohn's disease is frequently complicated by giardiasis

Giardiasis is a common infection, and many of its symptoms are similar to those of Crohn's disease. Despite a long discussion on the role of microbiologic agents in Crohn's disease, giardiasis has never been investigated. We studied giardiasis as assessed by the occurrence of cysts in 86 patients with Crohn's disease, in 82 patients with other gastrointestinal disease, and in 52 patients without gastrointestinal disease. In addition, in 20 patients with Crohn's disease the effects of metronidazole on giardiasis and disease activity were studied. Frequency of giardiasis was 61.6% in patients with Crohn's disease, 31.7% in patients with other gastrointestinal disease, and 5.8% in the control group (p less than 0.01). Stool frequency, disease activity, and humoral signs of inflammation in patients with Crohn's disease showed no relationship to giardiasis. All but two patients treated with metronidazole became free of cysts. Crohn's disease activity index decreased in 14 of 20 patients (p less than 0.05). In conclusion, giardiasis is a common finding in patients with Crohn's disease. Treatment of giardiasis can, in individual cases of Crohn's disease, result in a quick recovery from symptoms of high disease activity.     

Incidence of coronary artery disease in patients with valvular heart disease.

The case notes, cardiac catheterisation data, and coronary arteriograms of 239 patients investigated for valvular heart disease during a five year period were reviewed. Angina present in 13 of 95 patients with isolated mitral valve disease, 43 of 90 patients with isolated aortic valve disease, and 18 of 54 patients with combined mitral and aortic valve disease. Significant coronary artery disease was present in 85 per cent of patients with mitral valve disease and angina, but in only 33 per cent of patients with aortic valve disease and angina. Patients with no chest pain still had a high incidence of coronary artery disease, significant coronary obstruction being present in 22 per cent with mitral valve disease, 22 per cent with aortic valve disease, and 11 per cent with combine mitral and aortic valve disease. Several possible clinical markers of coronary artery disease were examined but none was found to be of practical help. There was, however, a significant inverse relation between severity of coronary artery disease and severity of valve disease in patients with aortic valve disease. Asymptomatic coronary artery disease is not uncommon in patients with valvular heart disease and if it is policy to perform coronary artery bypass grafting in such patients, routine coronary arteriography must be part of the preoperative investigation.     

Do clinical factors help to predict disease course in inflammatory bowel disease?

While therapeutic strategies able to change the natural history of the disease are developing,it is of major importance to have available predictive factors for aggressive disease to try and target these therapeutic strategies.Clinical predictors have probably been the most broadly studied.In both Crohn's disease(CD) and ulcerative colitis(UC),age at diagnosis,disease location and smoking habit are currently the strongest predictors of disease course.A younger age at onset is associated with more aggressive...     

Coeliac disease in autoimmune liver disease: A cross-sectional study and a systematic review

BackgroundSeveral studies have reported an association between coeliac disease and autoimmune liver disease, but there is little information on the prevalence of coeliac disease in certain autoimmune liver diseases, particularly from non-European, non-American countries.AimsTo investigate prevalence of coeliac disease in autoimmune liver disease in Iran and to summarize previous literature.MethodsWe investigated prevalence of coeliac disease among 100 autoimmune liver disease patients and compared it with the prevalence in healthy individuals. We also performed an extensive search of the English literature in PubMed Database.ResultsWe found substantially elevated prevalence of coeliac disease in patients with overlap syndrome (10–15%) compared to the general population (0.1–1%). To a lesser extent, the prevalence was high in patients with autoimmune hepatitis (2–4%). In our systematic review, prevalence of coeliac disease in autoimmune hepatitis in the majority of studies was 4% or more; several studies also reported such prevalence in primary biliary cirrhosis.ConclusionsSince coeliac disease is common among patients with autoimmune liver disease, screening autoimmune liver disease patients for coeliac disease is indicated. Although the magnitude of benefit from a gluten-free diet in reversing autoimmune liver disease in patients with coeliac disease is controversial, it may reduce the risk of further complications of coeliac disease.     

Progression of coronary artery disease. Cinearteriographic and clinical observations in medically and surgically treated patients

The evolutionary pattern of occlusive coronary artery disease was studied by comparing coronary cinearteriographic findings in repeated catheterizations of 85 patients. Fifty-six percent of 16 medically treated patients with coronary artery disease were found to have progression of occlusive coronary artery disease in the repeated study. Patients who had progressive coronary artery disease were similar to those with nonprogressive disease in age and in duration and severity of disease. A history of hypercholesterolemia seemed to be more frequent among patients with progressive than in those with nonprogressive coronary artery disease. Other risk factors of coronary artery disease were found to be similarly frequent among patients with progressive and nonprogressive disease.Progression of occlusive coronary artery disease was associated with a greater deterioration of cardiac function. Cardiac index decreased significantly in patients with progressive disease, and did not change very much in patients with nonprogressive disease. Among the patients with progressive disease, two had a myocardial infarction between catheterizations, whereas none of those with nonprogressive disease had infarction. Electrocardiographic findings were similar in both groups of patients, except for new infarction changes in the patients with progressive disease who sustained an infarct. Seventeen percent of 65 patients who underwent aortocoronary saphenous vein graft bypass surgery were found in the second study (average interval 10.1 months) to have proximal occlusion of a distally grafted vessel with a patent graft. Progression of disease in nongrafted coronary arteries was found in 6 percent of the surgically treated group. Of four patients who had internal mammary artery implantation, two had progression of coronary disease in a repeat study.Conclusions regarding the evolution and progression of coronary artery disease should be drawn only from medically treated patients, since coronary artery surgery may alter the natural course of this disease. Medically treated patients who are reconsidered for surgical treatment should have a repeat catheterization to detect any change in distribution of occlusive coronary artery disease and in cardiac function.     

Renal disease in patients with HIV

As survival continues to improve in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy, kidney, liver, and cardiac disease have become increasingly important sources of mortality and morbidity in patients with HIV. The incidence of end-stage renal disease in patients with HIV is projected to increase, and the incidence of earlier chronic kidney disease, acute renal failure, and electrolyte abnormalities is likely to be much higher than appreciated. Both acute and chronic kidney disease are more common in the setting of advanced HIV, hepatitis coinfection or liver disease, and medication toxicity. Close collaboration between nephrologists and infectious disease specialists is important to facilitate the identification, diagnosis, and management of acute and chronic kidney disease in patients with HIV. Recently published guidelines highlight the increased awareness of kidney disease in the infectious disease community and provide guidelines for the detection and management of chronic kidney disease in patients with HIV.     

Inflammatory bowel disease and lung

Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease are associated with a variety of systemic manifestations. Pulmonary disease has been described much less frequently than other organ systems, yet more than 400 cases have been reported. Lung and gastrointestinal system are originated from primitive gut and they have same pathogenetic changes in these patients. Major patterns of pulmonary disease associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are pleuritis, airway disease, interstitial lung disease, necrobiotic nodules, pulmonary eosinophilia, thromboembolic disease, vasculitis, granulomatous lung disease, etc. Colectomy may aggravate respiratory symptoms. Drug induced disease must be kept in mind in patients taking sulfasalazine, mesalamine, methotrexate, and anti-TNF-alpha. Latent pulmonary abnormalities are evident either at pulmonary function tests or induced sputum or bronchoalveolar lavage, have been also reported in patients with inflammatory bowel disease in the absence of clinical evidence of airway disease. The treatment of IBD related respiratory involvement depends on the specific pattern of involvement, if left untreated, especially in airway disease, puts the patient at risk of developing irreversible destruction of the air passage. A high degree of suspicion is necessary to detect early the respiratory disease in association with any form of bowel disease.     

Correlation between juvenile idiopathic arthritis activity and damage measures in early, advanced, and longstanding disease

OBJECTIVE: To compare the correlation between juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) measures of disease activity and damage in patients with early and late disease. METHODS: Three cohorts of patients with JIA disease duration < or =1 year (early disease, n = 70), 5-9.9 years (advanced disease, n = 114), and > or =10 years (longstanding disease, n = 39) were studied. Measures included physician's global assessment of overall disease activity (MD global), parent's global assessment of the child's well-being (parent global) and pain (parent pain), joint counts, Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ), erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein level, and Poznanski score of radiographic damage. RESULTS: In all cohorts, the MD global assessment was generally well correlated with the other variables, except the Poznanski score. The parent global assessment was correlated strongly with the parent pain assessment and moderately with the CHAQ irrespective of disease duration. Correlations between the CHAQ and the joint counts were low in early disease, moderate in advanced disease, and high to moderate in longstanding disease. Correlation between the CHAQ and the Poznanski score was low in early and advanced disease and moderate in longstanding disease. The Poznanski score was highly correlated with the number of joints with restricted motion in longstanding disease. CONCLUSION: We found important differences in the level of correlation between JIA measures of activity and damage in patients with different lengths of disease duration. These findings have important implications for clinical trials because they indicate that the responsiveness of some variables and their correlation with other variables change as disease duration changes.     

Thrombopoietin serum levels in patients with inflammatory bowel disease with and without previous thromboembolic events

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Patients affected by inflammatory bowel disease frequently suffer from thromboembolic complications and mesenteric microvascular occlusion could be involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease. Increased platelet counts and abnormal platelet function seem to play a crucial role in determining the hypercoagulable state observed in inflammatory bowel disease. Thrombopoietin is considered the primary regulator of thrombopoiesis and recent studies have investigated the role of thrombopoietin in inflammatory bowel disease. However, the available data are not conclusive. The aim of this study was to assess thrombopoietin serum levels in inflammatory bowel disease patients according to platelet counts, disease activity and previous thrombotic events. METHODOLOGY: Seventy-one patients with inflammatory bowel disease [41 with ulcerative colitis and 30 with Crohn's disease] and 30 healthy controls were investigated. Eight (11%) inflammatory bowel disease patients had suffered previous thromboembolic complications, none had active thrombosis. Thrombopoietin serum levels were measured by ELISA. RESULTS: Mean thrombopoietin levels were significantly increased in inflammatory bowel disease patients with active disease compared to both healthy controls and patients with inactive disease. Platelet counts were significantly higher only in patients with active disease with respect to healthy subjects. No correlation was found between thrombopoietin levels and platelet counts in either controls or inflammatory bowel disease patients. No differences were found either in thrombopoietin levels or in platelet counts comparing inflammatory bowel disease patients with and without thromboembolic complications. CONCLUSIONS: Our data show elevated thrombopoietin levels in active inflammatory bowel disease. However, no correlation was found between platelet counts and thrombopoietin levels, supporting the hypothesis that other circulating factors than thrombopoietin interact in determining reactive thrombocytosis. Furthermore, thrombopoietin levels did not differ in inflammatory bowel disease patients with or without previous thromboembolic events. This finding could be probably explained by the lack of patients with active thrombosis at the moment of inclusion in the study.     

静息心电图正常的老年冠心病患者临床特点分析

目的：探讨静息心电图正常的老年冠心病患者的临床特征。方法：对46例心电图正常的老年冠心病患者冠状动脉造影结果及其危险因素资料进行回顾性分析。结果：46例患者中,冠状动脉单支病变者为18例（39.1％）,多支病变者28例（60.9％）;前降支病变32例,右冠状动脉病变22例,左回旋支病变16例,左主干病变2例;与单支病变组比较,多支病变组合并糖尿病（33.3％比75.0％）及慢性肾病（22.2％比53.6％）比例相对较高,有统计学差异（P均＜0.05）。结论：静息心电图正常的老年冠心病患者冠脉多支病变较常见,且合并糖尿病及慢性肾病者比例较高。     

Are Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Increased Risk of Coronary Artery Disease?

The inflammatory state of atherosclerosis has been established as those with chronic inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, who are at increased risk of coronary artery disease. A systematic search was conducted to retrieve high-quality, peer-reviewed studies of inflammatory bowel disease and coronary artery disease. Recent literature supports an association between inflammatory bowel disease and coronary artery disease. While hypertension increases the risk of coronary artery disease in inflammatory bowel disease patients, other typical risk factors have not been confirmed, and markers of inflammation may predict coronary artery disease risk in this population. Common cardiovascular drugs such as statins and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors may have dual potential for controlling inflammatory bowel disease and preventing or treating coronary artery disease. Large, prospective, longitudinal studies can help to determine the true prevalence of coronary artery disease in this population and confirm risk factors. In the absence of such evidence, physicians should be cognizant of increased coronary artery disease risk in inflammatory bowel disease patients without traditional risk factors and consider primary preventive strategies.     

Changes in liver and spleen volumes in alcoholic liver disease

Liver and spleen volumes were determined using computed tomography in 57 subjects with alcoholic liver disease and 76 subjects with nonalcoholic liver disease, in order to clarify the clinical characteristics and pathogenetic mechanisms of portal hypertension in alcoholic liver disease. The liver volumes in alcoholic liver disease were significantly larger than those in nonalcoholic liver disease, except in cases of decompensated liver cirrhosis. The increase in liver volume in alcoholic liver disease showed a significant correlation with the degree of hepatocytic ballooning. Overlapping of values for liver volume between alcoholic and nonalcoholic liver disease was quite small, suggesting that determination of liver volumes could be helpful for making etiological diagnoses in chronic liver disease. Spleen volumes were increased in the advanced cases of both alcoholic and nonalcoholic liver disease. The correlations between liver and spleen volumes were quite different between alcoholic and nonalcoholic liver disease. In nonalcoholic liver disease, a negative correlation was obtained, while, on the other hand, it was significantly positive in alcoholic liver disease. This appears to suggest that the pathogenetic mechanism of portal hypertension may differ between the diseases. After abstinence from alcohol, the decrease in liver and spleen volumes showed a statistically significant correlation, suggesting that ballooning of the hepatocytes may play a role in the augmentation of portal hypertension in alcoholic liver disease.     

Predicting cardiovascular risk in the elderly in different European countries.

AIMS: The objective of this study was to develop risk functions for coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease mortality for elderly men in different European countries. METHODS and RESULTS: The FINE Study is a prospective follow-up study of 2170 elderly men aged 65-84 years in Finland, Italy and The Netherlands. During 10 years of follow-up 289 men died from coronary heart disease and 545 men from cardiovascular disease. Risk functions were estimated using logistic regression analysis, in order to take competing causes of death into account. The results of the present study show that total cholesterol and smoking were the most important predictors of coronary heart disease mortality, and HDL cholesterol, systolic blood pressure and smoking of cardiovascular disease mortality. Left ventricular hypertrophy, being subject to coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease in Finland and The Netherlands and use of antihypertensive medication in Italy, were also important predictors. For estimating the absolute risk of coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease mortality in the elderly it is necessary to take into account the European country in which they live. CONCLUSION: Total and HDL cholesterol, systolic blood pressure and smoking remain important predictors of coronary heart disease and/or cardiovascular disease mortality in elderly men, but also left ventricular hypertrophy, being subject to coronary heart disease, use of antihypertensive medication and country are predictive of coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease risk.     

Exercise-induced regional wall motion abnormalities on radionuclide angiography: Lack of reliability for detection of coronary artery disease in the presence of valvular heart disease

Exercise-induced regional wall motion abnormalities on radionuclide angiography have been thought to be a reliable indicator of coronary artery disease. To evaluate their reliability, particularly in patients with valvular heart disease, exercise radionuclide angiography was performed in 12 normal subjects, 35 patients with coronary artery disease and 19 patients with valvular heart disease and normal coronary arteries. Exercise-induced regional wall motion abnormalities were found in none of the normal subjects, 63 percent of the patients with coronary artery disease and 42 percent of those with valvular heart disease and were predominantly inferoapical in location in the group with valvular heart disease. We conclude that exercise-induced regional wall motion abnormalities are not reliable for the detection of coronary artery disease in patients with valvular heart disease.     

Immunogenetics of Hashimoto's and Graves' diseases

Haplotypes of the human major histocompatibility complex (HLA) and the immunoglobulin allotype (Gm) were analyzed in all 243 members of 37 families in which 2 or more first degree relatives had Graves' disease. In 10 families with 70 members where 1 or more first degree relatives had Hashimoto's disease, 26 (37%) had Graves' disease, and 14 (20%) had Hashimoto's disease. In the other 27 families, consisting of 173 members, 70 (40%) had Graves' disease, and none had Hashimoto's disease. The disease-associated haplotypes of HLA and Gm for each family were identified by determining the haplotypes concordant in 2 members with Graves' disease. In 10 families with Graves' and Hashimoto's diseases, all 14 members with Hashimoto's disease had the same disease-associated haplotypes of both HLA and Gm as had members with Graves' disease in each family. Among 96 members with Graves' disease in 37 families, 74 were used for the determination of the disease-associated haplotypes. In the remaining 22 members with Graves' disease, 21 had both disease-associated haplotypes in their families. Our findings in these families suggest that 1) in Hashimoto's disease as in Graves' disease, two genes linked to HLA and Gm, respectively, control the susceptibility of the disease; 2) common immunogenetic factors are involved in the pathogenesis of both Hashimoto's and Graves' disease, and 3) those who do not have immunogenetic factors are very unlikely to develop Hashimoto's or Graves' disease.