These findings suggest that HD patients are not protected against Hp infection as the Hp prevalences are as high as that for the non-renal disease group. The increased dyspeptic complaints may be partly related to Hp infection.

Hypertrichosis of the eyelashes is a rare adverse effect of interferon-alpha treatment. We present a 21-year-old man with chronic renal failure and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection who developed hypertrichosis of the eyelashes as a complication of IFN-alpha therapy. The patient was a candidate for living related renal transplantation and was given IFN-alpha 15 million units per week for HBV DNA positivity. After 6 months of therapy, HBV DNA positivity persisted, and the dose of IFN was increased to 30 million units per week. At the end of the first half of the second 6 months of therapy, the patient suffered from bilateral hypertrichosis of the eyelashes.

No abstract

To evaluate the histologic changes in the livers of renal transplant candidates who were infected with hepatitis viruses, we performed a percutaneous liver biopsy in each of 74 regular hemodialysis patients. Forty percent of them were seropositive for the antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) whereas 29.7% had anti-HCV and antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen (antiHBs) concomitantly. Seven (9.5%) were seropositive for only hepatitis B surface antigen HBsAg. Histopathological examination revealed that 30% of patients had chronic active hepatitis (CAH), 11% had chronic persistent hepatitis (CPH), and 3% displayed histopathological evidence of cirrhosis. Eleven of 22 patients with CAH were positive for only anti-HCV, and 2 of 22 were positive for only HBsAg. One patient had HBsAg and anti-HCV together, and 8 of 22 had anti-HBs and anti-HCV concomitantly. None of the anti-HBs positive patients exhibited abnormal histopathological changes. We found no statistically significant difference in histopathological findings between the HBsAg positive and anti-HCV positive patients. As 32 of 74 patients (43%) had some degree of chronic liver disease, we concluded that it is prudent to evaluate liver histology in HBsAg and anti-HCV seropositive renal transplant candidates before transplantation.

Results suggest that exogenous melatonin has no beneficial effect on the healing of colonic anastomosis.