Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) was the first liver disease for which an effective therapeutic intervention, corticosteroid treatment, was convincingly demonstrated in controlled clinical trials. However, 50 years later AIH still remains a major diagnostic and therapeutic challenge.
Liver fibrosis is part of the structural and functional alterations in most chronic liver diseases. It is one of the main prognostic factors as the amount of fibrosis is correlated with the risk of developing cirrhosis and liver-related complications in viral and non-viral chronic liver diseases [1,2]. Liver biopsy has traditionally been considered the reference…
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the main causes of chronic liver disease worldwide. The long-term impact of HCV infection is highly variable, ranging from minimal histological changes to extensive fibrosis and cirrhosis with or without hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The number of chronically infected persons worldwide is estimated to be about 160 million,…
Hepatic Encephalopathy (HE) is a frequent complication and one of the most debilitating manifestations of liver disease, severely affecting the lives of patients and their caregivers. Furthermore, cognitive impairment associated with cirrhosis results in utilization of more health care resources in adults than other manifestations of liver disease. Progress in the area has been hindered…
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the main causes of chronic liver disease worldwide. The long-term impact of HCV infection is highly variable, from minimal changes to extensive fibrosis and cirrhosis with or without hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The number of chronically infected persons worldwide is estimated to be about 160 million, but most…
More than 360 million persons worldwide (6% of the world population) are chronically infected by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Although the incidence of HBV infection has dramatically declined since the implementation of universal immunization programs in several countries and blood-donor screening, a significant number of children are still infected each year, often developing chronic infection…
Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is the most prevalent cause of advanced liver disease in Europe. However, there has been limited research investment into ALD despite its significant burden on the health of Europeans. This disparity is reflected by the ETOh score – the ratio of the estimated population mortality rate to the number of trials…
These guidelines result from a joint collaboration between the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC). The EASL–EORTC Clinical Practice Guidelines provide common guidelines for the management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and define the use of surveillance, diagnosis, and therapeutic strategies recommended…
April 2012, EASL’s revised CPGs on the Management of Chronic Hepatitis B (originally released in October 2008) now include; modified indications for liver biopsy and treatment for HBeAg-negative patients, new stopping rules for pegylated interferon-alfa therapy, amended recommendations for patients with partial virological response at 12 months of therapy with entecavir (ETV) or tenofovir (TDF),…
Recommendations are based on a systematic literature review in the Medline (PubMed version), Embase (Dialog version), and the Cochrane Library databases using entries from 1966 to 2011. The Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system used in other EASL CPGs was used and set against the somewhat different grading system used in the…