Frequency of thyroid dysfunction after recombinant alpha-interferon therapy in Greek patients with chronic active hepatitis

Clinical significance of organ‐ and non‐organ‐specific autoantibodies on the response to anti‐viral treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C

“…The production of several organ and NOSA has been reported previously by our group as well as by other investigators in patients with HCV infection either in adults or in HCV‐infected children 3, 11–22, 26, 28, 30, 31–35, 42, 44, 46 . So far, however, very few studies in adults HCV patients have strictly designed to investigate if the prevalence and the titres of these autoantibodies in serial serum samples of treated adult patients are affected by anti‐viral therapy and whether there is any clinical significance of this phenomenon with respect to the response to treatment 31–35 .…”

“…The Knodell fibrosis scores were: 0 (no fibrosis), 1 (portal fibrosis), 2 (portal fibrosis with few septa), 3 (bridging fibrosis) and 4 (cirrhosis). 40,41 According to previous publications of our group 36,37,42,43 patients were divided in two groups (i) according to inflammation: minimal/mild (0-8) and moderate/severe [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] and (ii) according to fibrosis none/mild/moderate (0-2) and severe fibrosis/cirrhosis. 3,4 Autoantibodies detection…”

“…Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a common worldwide problem and a leading cause of chronic liver disease as more than 170 million people are chronically infected by the virus 1 . Among several characteristics, HCV has the propensity to induce specific and non‐specific autoimmune reactions, as attested by the provocation of various immunological phenomena, namely: mixed cryoglobulinaemia, non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma, sialadenitis, porphyria cutanea tarda, autoimmune thyroid disease, autoimmune hepatitis, diabetes and a high prevalence of organ and non‐organ‐specific autoantibodies (NOSA) possibly reflecting a chronic antigenic stimulation or a direct infection of immunocytes by the virus 2–22 …”

Prevalence of hepatitis B and C viruses infection in chronic alcoholics with or without liver disease in Ioannina, Greece: Low incidence of HCV infection

“…This finding may reflect technical (previous false positive results, introduction of anti-HCV testing for blood products, etc.) or probable socioeconomic differences regarding the lifestyle of our patients, and our population in general [30][31][32][33].…”

Φλεγμονωδης Παθηση Των Εντερων: Ανοσολογικες Διαταραχες

“…(αν και στην περιοχή της Ηπείρου, δεν έχει διαπιστωθεί επαγωγή αυτοανοσίας με τη μορφή συνδρόμου ή νοσήματος τουλάχιστον σε ασθενείς που λαμβάνουν INF-a)345 . Επιπρόσθετα, η καθιέρωση της χορήγησης των αυξητικών αυτών παραγόντων, σαν ρουτίνα, προφυλακτικά σε ασθενείς που λαμβάνουν σταθερές χημειοθεραπευτικές δόσεις Έτσι, μπορεί να εξηγηθεί η αυξημένη παραγωγή IgE ανοσοσφαιρίνης σε αλλεργικούς ασθενείς που είναι σε θεραπεία με κορτικ,οστεροειδη καθώς και μετά από stress,…”