CAP with the XL probe is a new tool for the diagnosis of steatosis. This parameter could be useful for the diagnosis and the follow-up of obese patients.

BackgroundThe Brief COPE instrument has been utilized to conduct research on various populations, including people living with HIV (PLWH). However, the questionnaire constructs when applied to PLWH have not been subjected to thorough factor validation.MethodsA total of 258 PLWH were recruited from two provinces of China. They answered questions involving the scales of three instruments: the Brief COPE, the Perceived Social Support Scale, and the Perceived Discrimination Scale for PLWH. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) were conducted.ResultsThe CFA found a poor goodness of fit to the data. The subsequent EFA identified six preliminary factors, forming subscales with Cronbach’s alphas, which ranged from 0.61 to 0.80. Significant correlation coefficients between the subscales and measures of perceived social support and perceived discrimination were reported, giving preliminary support to the validity of the new empirical factor structure.ConclusionThis study showed that the original factor structure of the Brief COPE instrument, when applied to PLWH in China, did not fit the data. Thus, the Brief COPE should be applied to various populations and cultures with caution. The new factor structure established by the EFA is only preliminary and requires further validation.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40249-015-0074-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Interferon can slow fibrosis progression in sustained virological responders with severe fibrosis. In patients with a non-virological response and treated for 12 months the fibrosis progression rate was nil, meaning that only fibrosis stabilization could be obtained in these patients. Then, longer treatment duration (3-4 years) could be evaluated in non-virological responders.

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