Objective To investigate and analyze the relationships among glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) level, chronic inflammation, and atherosclerosis in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Methods From October 2016 to February 2017, using cross-sectional investigation, the GLP-1 level, chronic inflammation, and atherosclerosis were investigated in 80 subjects (40 NAFLD patients in NAFLD group, and 40 non-fatty liver disease participants in control group) who underwent physical examination at Xi’an Road Community Hospital. Results Compared with those in the control group, GLP-1 fasting level in patients with NAFLD [(9.09±1.03) vs. (9.15±1.06) pmol/L, P=0.807] and postprandial plasma GLP-1 [(15.96±3.37) vs. (17.46±4.76) pmol/L, P=0.108] had no changes. The correlations of GLP-1 level with chronic inflammation and insulin resistance (IR) were not significant either. The increased risk of carotid intima-media thickness related cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the NAFLD group was greater than that in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant [22 (55.0%)vs.13 (32.5%), P=0.043]. When the plasma lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 level increased, the risk of NAFLD increased [odd ratio (OR)=1.16, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.02, 1.32), P=0.023]. Plasma ceramide kinase (CERK) in the NAFLD group was lower than that in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant [(12.36±2.45) vs. (18.33±3.71) ng/mL, P<0.001]. When the plasma CERK level of the fasting plasma was elevated, the risk of NAFLD decreased [OR=0.30, 95%CI (0.12, 0.78), P=0.014]. The homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) in the NAFLD group was higher than that in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (2.46±2.53 vs. 1.11±0.66, P=0.002). The Matsuda index in the NAFLD group was less than that in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (5.88±4.09 vs. 10.46±7.90, P=0.002). When HOMA-IR increased, the risk of NAFLD increased [OR=2.75, 95%CI (2.49, 3.12), P=0.036]. Conclusions Plasma GLP-1 level is not a sensitive indicator of chronic inflammation and IR in patients with NAFLD. Patients with NAFLD are in an increased risk of atherosclerosis and CVD. It suggests that NAFLD might be involved in chronic inflammation and IR. Chronic inflammation can cause IR, and then chronic inflammation and IR can cause NAFLD and subclinical atherosclerosis. In return for this, NAFLD increases chronic inflammation and IR.
Objective To summarize advances in the application of machine learning in the diagnosis and treatment of liver disease. Method The recent literatures on the progress of machine learning in the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of liver diseases were reviewed. Results Machine learning could be used to diagnose and categorize substantial liver lesions, tumourous lesions and rare liver diseases at an early stage, which could facilitate clinicians to take timely and appropriate treatment measures. Machine learning was helpful in informing clinicians in choosing the best treatment decision, which was conducive to reducing medical risks. It could also help to determine the prognosis of patients in a comprehensive manner, and provide assistance in formulating early rehabilitation treatment plans, adjusting follow-up strategies and improving future prognosis. Conclusions Multiple types of machine learning algorithms have achieved positive results in the clinical application of liver diseases by constructing different prediction models, and have great potential and excellent prospects in multiple aspects such as diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of liver diseases.
ObjectiveTo summarize the relationship between Kupffer cells (KCs) and liver diseases.MethodsThe related literatures about the research progress of KCs in liver diseases in recent years were collected and analyzed.ResultsKCs were an important component of the monocyte-macrophage system. In a specific environment, activated KCs participated in a variety of inflammatory reactions, immune tolerance, and damage to hepatocytes by presenting antigens, secreting cytokines and chemokines, phagocytosis, and so on. KCs could not only be activated into M1 to promote inflammatory reaction and aggravate hepatocyte injury, but also could be activated to M2 to play an anti-inflammatory effect and improve liver injury. The role of KCs in liver diseases was very complex, but it also had potential research value.ConclusionKCs can affect the progression of liver diseases through many mechanisms and can provide new ideas for the prevention and treatment of liver diseases.
【Abstract】Objective To introduce the birth and development of model of endstage liver disease (MELD) and evaluate its effect on liver transplantation(LT) as a new scoring system. Methods Literatures of MELD applied in LT were analyzed retrospectively. Results MELD scoring system was used for predicting the prognosis of patients with endstage liver disease and the death risk of candidates on waiting LT extensively and the order of organ sharing was determined by its predicable results. Conclusion MELD has been had a successful initial implementation for predicting the shortterm survival probability and mortality in patients with endstage liver disease, and meeting the goal of providing a system of allocation that emphasizes the urgency of the candidate while diminishing the reliance on waiting time, which has been proven to be a powerful tool for auditing the liver allocation system.
Objective To investigate the incidence and risk factors of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in patients with myocardial infarction. Methods A total of 634 patients with myocardial infarction from Beijing Anzhen Hospital were asked to take liver and gallbladder ultrasonography during hospitalization, and then divided into the NAFLD and non-NAFLD groups. The incidence and risk factors of the two groups were then analyzed. Results The incidence of NAFLD was 52.2% (331/634). Both body mass index (BMI) and serum alanine aminotransferase of the NAFLD group were higher than those of non-NAFLD group, with significant difference (Plt;0.05). The incidence of NAFLD was positively increased following the severity of coronary diseases (χ2=7.275, P=0.03). The result of multivariable logistic regression analysis showed BMI, multi-vessel lesions of coronary disease, and left main coronary artery lesion were the independent risk factors of NAFLD. Conclusion The myocardial infarction patients who are particularly complicated by overweight, multi-vessel lesions and left main coronary artery lesion have a higher incidence of NAFLD.
Liver fibrosis in chronic liver disease refers to the body’s repair response to sustained repeated necrosis or inflammation of liver cells, which results in fibrosis accompanied by relative or absolute lack of fiber degradation and deposition of extracellular matrix in the liver. Early and timely diagnosis and treatment of hepatic fibrosis are of great importance to patients with liver disease. A rational and complete diagnostic model of liver fibrosis should involve clinical pathology and histology, imaging, and serum biochemical markers. Liver biopsy has been regarded as the "gold standard" for the diagnosis of liver fibrosis and as a reference standard for other non-invasive diagnostic tests of liver fibrosis. Since it is invasive, liver biopsy is difficult to implement in clinical practice and a second liver biopsy is even more difficult. As for the non-invasive diagnosis of liver fibrosis, clinical symptoms and signs are not specific. The sensitivity and specificity of individual serum biochemical markers are still very weak, and imaging studies also lack specificity. The mathematical model “FibroTest” of serum biochemical markers has better diagnostic accuracy, but the calculation is complicated, making it difficult to achieve widespread use. There is insufficient evidence to suggest that the "gold standard" of liver biopsy can be replaced. Therefore, further research is needed to investigate how best to balance the benefits and harms of different tests, to identify the best combination, to simplify any calculation steps, to reduce costs, to avoid liver biopsy, and to find new, more specific and sensitive markers.
ObjectiveTo summarize the epidemiology of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and the epidemiological and economic burdens of NAFLD, so as to provide a reference for hospital management decision-making. MethodThe domestic and foreign guidelines relevant to NAFLD and the literatures relevant to epidemiological investigation and disease burden researches were summarized and its research progress was reviewed. ResultsThe global prevalence of NAFLD was increasing over years. The incidence, mortality, and disability adjusted life years of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer caused by NAFLD had increased year by year. The patients relevant to NAFLD of inpatients and outpatients had increased obviously, and the overall medical expenses had also shown a rising trend. The possible reasons were health care awareness, new drug research, population aging, and excessive medical consumption. In addition, children and adolescents with NAFLD had a obviously increased risk of liver or extrahepatic diseases. ConclusionsBy understanding the epidemiological trend of NAFLD, it is a certain understanding of the disease burden of NAFLD and the related factors affecting the increase of its treatment cost. It is believed that it is necessary to further pay attention to and strengthen the genetic characteristics, pathogenesis, drug research and development, and early diagnosis of cirrhosis and liver cancer relevant to NAFLD in the future. At the same time, the NAFLD group of children and adolescents should not be ignored.
Features and interaction between features of liver disease is of great significance for the classification of liver disease. Based on least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and interaction LASSO, the generalized interaction LASSO model is proposed in this paper for liver disease classification and compared with other methods. Firstly, the generalized interaction logistic classification model was constructed and the LASSO penalty constraints were added to the interactive model parameters. Then the model parameters were solved by an efficient alternating directions method of multipliers (ADMM) algorithm. The solutions of model parameters were sparse. Finally, the test samples were fed to the model and the classification results were obtained by the largest statistical probability. The experimental results of liver disorder dataset and India liver dataset obtained by the proposed methods showed that the coefficients of interaction features of the model were not zero, indicating that interaction features were contributive to classification. The accuracy of the generalized interaction LASSO method is better than that of the interaction LASSO method, and it is also better than that of traditional pattern recognition methods. The generalized interaction LASSO method can also be popularized to other disease classification areas.
Objective To systematically review the effect of intermittent fasting on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Methods The PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CNKI, WanFang Data and CBM databases were electronically searched to collect studies on the effect of intermittent fasting on NAFLD from inception to October 1, 2022. Two researchers independently screened the literature, extracted data and evaluated the risk of bias of the included studies. R software was then used for meta-analysis. Results A total of 7 studies were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that intermittent fasting could reduce liver fibrosis (MD=?0.93, 95%CI 1.67 to 0.19, P<0.05), the levels of glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (MD=?8.96, 95%CI ?11.83 to ?6.10, P<0.05), glutamyl transpeptidase (MD=?7.86, 95%CI ?12.00 to ?3.73, P<0.05), and inflammatory molecules (MD=?2.03, 95%CI ?3.69 to ?0.36, P<0.05). In addition, it reduced dietary (total energy) intake (MD=?255.99, 95%CI ?333.15 to ?178.82, P<0.05), body weight (MD=?2.42, 95%CI ?3.81 to ?1.02, P<0.05), BMI (MD=?0.52, 95%CI ?0.92 to ?0.13, P<0.05) and fat mass (MD=?2.37, 95%CI ?4.17 to ?0.57, P<0.05). Conclusion Current research evidence shows that intermittent fasting can improve NAFLD and help patients lose weight. Due to the limited quantity and quality of the included studies, more high-quality studies are needed to verify the above conclusion.
ObjectiveTo figure out the factors affecting the prognosis of liver transplantation and the research progress on methods for predicting the prognosis of liver transplantation so as to provide guidance and reference for the distribution of liver sources and the perioperative treatment of liver transplantation.MethodThe literatures related to the factors influencing the prognosis of liver transplantation and the methods in predicting the prognosis were searched in the PubMed, CNKI, Wanfang, and other databases and the results were analyzed and summarized.ResultsThe liver transplantation was an effective method in the treatment of end-stage liver diseases. The main factors affecting the prognosis of liver transplantation included the change of internal environment, systemic inflammatory response, and general systemic conditions. On the basis of Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD), the new prediction model built in combination with the blood sodium ion, lactate, muscle mass, or reticulocyte count and hemoglobin concentration had improved the prognostic prediction ability of liver transplantation.ConclusionsIt is possible to predict the prognosis of patients with liver transplantation more accurately by selecting a more targeted prediction model combined with the factors affecting the prognosis of liver transplantation. It might provide a reference for perioperative management and treatment and make the limited liver source play the most role and save more lives.