The aim of this study was to determine the incidence and clinical characteristics of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. As the HIV-infected population ages, cardiovascular disease prevalence and mortality are increasing, but the incidence and features of SCD have not yet been described. ...

BackgroundSustained virological response (SVR) after therapy with interferon plus ribavirin (IFN-RBV) reduces liver-related complications and mortality in patients coinfected with HIV and hepatitis C virus (HIV/HCV). We assessed the effect of SVR on HIV progression and mortality not related to liver disease.MethodsObservational cohort study including consecutive HIV/HCV-coinfected patients treated with ...

BACKGROUND:: Factors that predict HIV (human immunodeficiency virus)/AIDS patient postoperative mortality have remained poorly defined. OBJECTIVES:: The primary objective of this study was to identify factors predictive of short-term, postoperative mortality in HIV/AIDS patients. The secondary objective of this study was to develop a scoring system that would predict short-term ...

BACKGROUND: Only 29% of deceased donor kidney recipients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) receive HCV-positive (HCV+) kidneys. These kidneys are discarded 2.5 times more often than their HCV-negative (HCV-) counterparts, possibly due to the sense that an HCV+ kidney may adversely affect recipient liver function. The goals of this study ...

There are few neuropsychological or neuroimaging studies of HIV-positive children with "slow progression". "Slow progressors" are typically defined as children or adolescents who were vertically infected with HIV, but who received no or minimal antiretroviral therapy. We compared 12 asymptomatic HIV-positive children (8 to 12 years) with matched controls on a ...

Background & Aims:   We investigated long-term outcomes and prognostic factors in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related liver cirrhosis in the era of oral nucleos(t)ide analogue antiviral agents. Methods:  Between January 1999 and February 2009, a total of 240 consecutive patients who had HBV-related cirrhosis without malignancy were treated ...

 Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in men. Due to differences in the prevalence of viral hepatitis, the incidence of HCC in low and middle income countries is much higher than that of high income countries. Strategies to limit ...

ABSTRACT: Previous studies have reported white matter (WM) brain alterations in asymptomatic patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). We compared diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) derived WM fractional anisotropy (FA) between HIV-patients with and without mild macroscopic brain lesions determined using standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We furthermore investigated whether WM ...

Background/Aims: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection can adversely affect the clinical outcome of kidney transplantation (KT). Short-term efficacy of lamivudine has been demonstrated for chronic hepatitis B in KT recipients (KTR). Methods: To clarify the long-term impact of antiviral treatment for HBV-positive KTR, we retrospectively reviewed 94 HBV-positive (male 73%) ...

OBJECTIVE:: To compare regimens consisting of either efavirenz or nevirapine and two or more nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) among HIV-infected, antiretroviral-naïve, and AIDS-free individuals with respect to clinical, immunologic, and virologic outcomes. DESIGN:: Prospective studies of HIV-infected individuals in Europe and the United States included in the HIV-CAUSAL Collaboration. ...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the predominant form of primary liver cancer, is one of the most common cancers worldwide and the third most common cause of cancer-related death. Imaging studies including ultrasound and computed tomography are recommended for early detection of HCC, but they are operator dependent, costly and involve radiation. ...

BackgroundBefore the introduction of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), HIV-positive patients rarely died of liver disease. In resource-rich countries, cART dramatically increased longevity. As patients survived longer, hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection became a leading cause of death; however, because patients with AIDS continue to have five-fold greater mortality than non-AIDS ...

Background and AimsIt is not known whether chronic hepatitis B (CH-B) or chronic hepatitis C (CH-C) carries a greater risk of liver-related mortality. This study compared rates of liver-related mortality between these two groups in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS).Methods680 men with CH-B (n=337) or CH-C (n=343) at study ...

Preceding studies on morbidities and mortalities associated with TB in a cohort of HIV care indicate high incidence of TB development and premature death among patients on highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART). This study aims to measure the rate of TB, TB mortality, and associated risk factors following commencement of ...

OBJECTIVES: To measure the levels of serum soluble death receptor 5 (sDR5) in patients with hepatitis B. DESIGN AND METHODS: sDR5 concentration in 60 HBV infected patients and 30 healthy volunteers were measured by ELISA. RESULTS: sDR5 concentration in the HBV infected patients was decreased and correlated with serum ALT, ...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection currently accounts for approximately 600,000 deaths per year resulting from progression of liver fibrosis to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Treatment of chronic hepatitis B with antiviral agents aims to improve survival through the reduction of HBV DNA to undetectable levels and the resultant prevention of ...

The ethnicity and socioeconomic status of the host may affect the progression of hepatitis C virus (HCV). We aimed to compare survival and fibrosis progression in Hispanic white (HW) and non-Hispanic white (NHW) recipients of liver transplantation (LT) with HCV. All HW and NHW patients with HCV who underwent transplantation ...

OBJECTIVES:: Determine the impact of malnutrition, anaemia and social determinants on survival once starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) in a cohort of HIV infected adults in a rural HIV care centre in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. METHODS:: Retrospective and descriptive cohort study of adults starting ART between December 2004 and July 2009. We ...

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a neuropsychiatric complex syndrome, ranging from subtle behavioral abnormalities to deep coma and death. Hepatic encephalopathy emerges as the major complication of acute or chronic liver failure. Multiplicity of factors are involved in its pathophysiology, such as central and neuromuscular neurotransmission disorder, alterations in sleep patterns ...

Objective: to evaluate the factors associated with overall mortality and liver decompensation in HIV and HCV coinfected patients who are evaluated to receive HCV antiviral therapy with a known liver histological fibrosis stage. Design: Prospective cohort study Methods: 387 Consecutive HIV/HCV coinfected patients attending an outpatient clinical unit between January ...

Frequently quoted statistics that tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS are the most important infectious causes of death in high-burden countries are based on clinical records, death certificates, and verbal autopsy studies. Causes of death ascertained through these methods are known to be grossly inaccurate. Most data from Africa on ...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection results in liver injury and long-term complications such as liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Liver injury in HCV infection is believed to be caused by host immune responses, not by viral cytopathic effects. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) plays a pivotal role in the inflammatory processes ...

BACKROUND & AIMS: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is more frequent in kidney recipients than in the general population with a higher rate of liver-related morbidity and mortality. We evaluated the benefit associated with HBV viral suppression by nucleos(t)ide analogs treatment in HBV-infected kidney recipients. METHODS: This retrospective study included ...

OBJECTIVES:: To compare causes of death (CoD) from two independent sources: National Basic Death Files (NBDF) and deaths reported to the Spanish HIV-Research cohort (CoRIS) and compare two coding algorithms: International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) and revised version of Coding Causes of Death in HIV (revised-CoDe). METHODS:: Between 2004 and ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Tumour surveillance via induction of TRAIL-mediated apoptosis is a key mechanism, how the immune system prevents malignancy. To determine if gene variants in the TRAIL receptor I (DR4) gene affect the risk of hepatitis C virus-(HCV)-induced liver cancer (HCC), we analysed DR4 mutations C626G (rs20575) and A683C (rs20576) ...

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the probability of survival and to evaluate risk factors for death in a cohort of persons living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV) who had started tuberculosis (TB) treatment.METHODS: A prospective cohort study was conducted between June 2007 and December 2009 with HIV-infected patients who had started anti-tuberculosis ...

In the present study, we investigated the ability of anti-HIV drugs to interfere with normal cell cycle progression and to induce oxidative stress by perturbing the redox environment. Our results provide evidence that anti-HIV drugs have a differential effect on adipocyte cell cycle and differentiation, being able to modify the ...

BACKGROUND: Severe acute exacerbation of chronic hepatitis B can sometimes occur and lead to hepatic failure and death. The objective of this study was to elucidate the predictors of progression to hepatic decompensation during severe acute exacerbation. METHODS: We prospectively analyzed 37 consecutive patients with acute exacerbation of chronic hepatitis ...

Background: The increasing health burden and mortality from hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the United States are underappreciated. Objective: To examine mortality from HBV; HCV; and, for comparison, HIV. Design: Analysis of U.S. multiple-cause mortality data from 1999 to 2007 from the National Center for ...

SUMMARYSpace-time clustering of people who fall acutely ill with jaundice, then slip into coma and death, is an alarming phenomenon, more markedly so when the victims are mostly or exclusively pregnant. Documentation of the peculiar, fatal predisposition of pregnant women during outbreaks of jaundice identifies hepatitis E and enables construction ...

Our aim was to assess the predictive value of liver stiffness (LS), measured by transient elastography (TE), for clinical outcome in HIV/HCV-coinfected patients with compensated liver cirrhosis. This was a prospective cohort study of 239 consecutive HIV/HCV-coinfected patients with a new diagnosis of cirrhosis, done by TE, and no previous ...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) remains the most common cause of liver damage in patients with chronic kidney disease including patients on long-term dialysis. The natural history of HCV infection in patients with chronic kidney disease is not fully elucidated despite the adverse effect of HCV infection on survival in patients ...

Female sex workers (FSWs) have among the highest rates of HIV infection in India. However, little is known about their HIV-specific mortality rates. In total, 1561 FSWs participated in a cohort study in Karnataka. Outcome data (mortality) were available on 1559 women after 15 months of follow-up. To gather details ...

The use of nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) has revolutionized the treatment of infection by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis-B virus. NRTIs can suppress viral replication in the long-term, but possess significant toxicity that can seriously compromise treatment effectiveness. The major toxicity of NRTIs is mitochondrial toxicity. This manifests ...

Information on causes of death in HIV-infected patients in Sub-Saharan Africa is mainly derived from observational cohort and verbal autopsy studies. Autopsy is the gold standard to ascertain cause of death. We conducted an autopsy study to describe and compare the clinical and autopsy causes of death and contributory findings ...

Despite the South African antiretroviral therapy rollout, which should reduce the incidence of HIV-associated tuberculosis (TB), the number of TB-attributable deaths in KwaZuluNatal (KZN) remains high. TB is often diagnosed clinically, without microbiologic confirmation, leading to inaccurate estimates of TB-attributed deaths. This may contribute to avoidable deaths, and impact population-based ...

The incidence of Hepatitis B has significantly declined since the introduction of an HBV vaccination program. The aim of this study was to investigate recent clinical features of acute viral hepatitis B (AVH-B) in Korea. A total of 2241 patients with acute viral hepatitis were enrolled and their data were ...

Summary.  Cytokeratin-18 (CK-18) is a major intermediate filament protein in liver cells. The M30 fragment of CK-18 has been identified as a useful marker of apoptosis associated with fibrosis and steatosis in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). We sought to assess the relationship of this marker and steatosis in a cohort of ...

One consequence of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic has been the emergence of a broad awareness of the potential role of syringes in the transmission of infectious diseases. In addition to HIV/AIDS, the use of unsterile syringes by multiple persons has been linked to the spread of Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, ...

To investigate mortality rates and risk factors for death among smear-negative tuberculosis (TB) suspects. Cohort study nested within a cluster-randomised trial of community-based active case nding. Smearnegative TB suspects were followed for 12 months, with home tracing where necessary. We calculated mortality rates and used regression analysis to investigate the ...

The clinical picture of pituitary abscesses may resemble features of other pituitary pathologies including endocrine deficiencies. The characteristic radiological changes, namely the ring enhancement, may aid in the diagnostic work-up of this very rare condition.A 40-year-old patient with longstanding HIV infection presented with headache and fatigue. Testing for pituitary function ...

We used existing data systems to examine sexually transmitted disease (STD) and HIV/AIDS diagnosis rates and explore potential county-level associations between HIV/AIDS diagnosis rates and socioeconomic disadvantage. Using South Carolina county data, we constructed multivariate ring maps to spatially visualize syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and HIV/AIDS diagnosis rates; gender- and race-specific ...

This study examined correlates of disclosure of MSM behavior and seropositive HIV status to social network members among 187 African American MSM in Baltimore, MD. 49.7% of participants were HIV-positive, 64% of their social network members (excluding male sex partners) were aware of their MSM behavior, and 71.3% were aware ...

BACKGROUND: The psychometric hepatic encephalopathy score (PHES) is a battery of neuropsychological tests used in the diagnosis of minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE). AIM: The aim of this study was to construct and validate a dataset of normal values for the PHES. METHODS: Volunteers and patients with cirrhosis with and without ...

The aim of this study was to ascertain Turkish tour guides' awareness and attitudes regarding HIV and AIDS. A sample of 516 tour guides registered in Turkey who verbally consented to participate in this study responded to an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire. The respondents typically exhibited a reasonable to excellent degree ...

The AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource (ACSR) is a cooperative agreement among the United States National Cancer Institute (NCI) (Office of the Director, Office of HIV and AIDS Malignancy (OHAM)) and regional US consortia, University of California, San Francisco (West Coast), George Washington University (East Coast), and The Ohio State ...

Historically, the response of the Vietnamese government to illicit drug use and HIV has been slow and ineffective. However, 2006 saw the government formally endorse harm reduction interventions. This paper examines the views of senior key informants inside Vietnam on the development of an advocacy strategy for harm reduction. Twenty-nine ...

The effects of HIV/AIDS have been far-reaching in Africa. Beyond adverse health outcomes and the tremendous toll on life, AIDS has serious economic impacts on households, increasing livelihood insecurity while simultaneously depleting socio-economic resources. Although microfinance is believed to have the potential to mitigate the economic impacts of HIV by ...

Malaria remains an overwhelming problem in the tropical developing countries, with 300 to 500 million new cases and about a million deaths per year (Mishra et al., 2003). Malaria is a potentially life-threatening disease in the tropics. Jaundice is one of the severe manifestations of falciparum malaria. Its incidence (Mishra ...

HIV testing is necessary to curb the increasing epidemic. However, HIV-related stigma and perceptions of low likelihood of societal HIV testing may reduce testing rates. This study aimed to explore this association in South Africa, where HIV rates are extraordinarily high. Data were taken from the Soweto and Vulindlela, South ...