BCAA supplementation improved low muscle strength in patients with chronic liver disease, but did not increase muscle mass during the treatment period.

Aim: To assess the correlation between response to tolvaptan and treatment-related factors in liver cirrhosis patients.Methods: This single-center retrospective study was carried out at Shonan Kamakura General Hospital in Kanagawa, Japan, between October 2013 and September 2015. Forty-three liver cirrhosis patients (mean age, 65.7 years) with insufficient responses to conventional diuretics for at least 7 days were enrolled. All patients received oral tolvaptan (7.5 mg/day for 7 days) and guideline-directed medical therapy including sodium intake restrictions. A responder to tolvaptan was defined as a patient having a ≥2-kg decrease in body weight 1 week after commencing drug treatment, and a non-responder was defined as a patient not losing ≥2 kg in body weight 1 week after commencing treatment. We investigated the correlation of change in body weight for 1 week after drug administration compared to baseline clinical characteristics. Results:The mean body weight change from the baseline on the final dosing day was À2.47 ± 3.34 kg (P < 0.0001). There were 20 (46.5%) responders to tolvaptan. Urinary sodium and volume excretion was higher in responders than in non-responders (108.2 ± 70.5 vs 42.6 ± 36.7, P = 0.0003; 1462.8 ± 625.7 vs 960.9 ± 600.6, P = 0.0073). Logistic regression analyses for responders to tolvaptan were carried out, and independent correlation of the responders was urinary sodium excretion (P = 0.0114; hazard ratio, 0.9418; 95% confidence interval, 0.8768À0.9896) in the multivariate analyses. Conclusion:In decompensated liver cirrhosis patients, urinary excretion sodium showed good correlation with tolvaptan response.

AIMTo assess the effects of a combination therapy with natriuretic and aquaretic drugs in cirrhotic ascites patients.METHODSA two-center, randomized, open-label, prospective study was conducted. Japanese patients who met the criteria were randomized to trial group and the combination diuretic group (received 7.5 mg of tolvaptan) or the conventional diuretic group (received 40 mg of furosemide) for 7 d in addition to the natriuretic drug which was used prior to enrolment in this study. The primary endpoint was the change in body weight from the baseline. Vital signs, fluid intake, and laboratory and urinary data were assessed to determine the pharmacological effects after administration of aquaretic and natriuretic drugs.RESULTSA total of 56 patients were randomized to receive either tolvaptan (n = 28) or furosemide (n = 28). In the combination and conventional diuretic groups, the average decrease in body weight from the baseline was 3.21 ± 3.17 kg (P < 0.0001) and 1.75 ± 2.36 kg (P = 0.0006), respectively, when measured on the final dosing day. Following 1 wk of treatment, a significantly greater reduction in body weight was observed in the combination diuretic group compared to that in the conventional diuretic group (P = 0.0412).CONCLUSIONCompared to a conventional diuretic therapy with only a natriuretic drug, a combination diuretic therapy with natriuretic and aquaretic drugs is more effective for patients with cirrhotic ascites.

A 69-year-old male patient presented with multiple lung nodules revealed by chest-computed tomography (CT) during a preoperative examination for an appendiceal tumor. The nodule diameters ranged from 2-10 mm without either pleural thickening or effusions. A fluorine-18-labeled fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET)/CT scan showed a high FDG uptake in the appendiceal tumor, but almost normal standardized uptake values in the bilateral lung nodules. A CT-guided biopsy led to a diagnosis of pulmonary epithelioid hemangioendothelioma, a rare vascular tumor with a radiological presentation similar to that of a metastatic lung tumor. The present case is the first to describe successful treatment using a CT-guided biopsy instead of more conventional methods.

Background Thoracic endovascular aortic repair of an aortoesophageal fistula is an effective emergency treatment for patients with T4-esophageal cancer, as it prevents sudden death, and is a bridge to surgery. However, the course of unresectable malignant aortoesophageal fistula treated with thoracic endovascular aortic repair alone is not well-known. Case Presentation We report a 67-year-old Japanese man with T4-esophageal cancer who experienced a chemoradiation-induced aortoesophageal fistula and was rescued with thoracic endovascular aortic repair. He recovered after the procedure and survived for 4 additional months with management of a mycotic aneurysm and secondary aortoesophageal fistula with the exposure of the stent graft into the esophagus. Thoracic endovascular aortic repair of aortoesophageal fistula with T4-esophageal cancer extended life for nearly an average of 4 months in the reported cases. As a postoperative complication, the exposure of the stent graft into the esophagus is rare but life-threatening; the esophageal stent insertion was effective. Conclusions With postoperative management advances, thoracic endovascular aortic repair can improve survival and increase the quality of life of patients with T4-esophageal cancer.