The Week in Review: July 27 – August 24, 2018

This page is an archive. Its content may no longer be accurate and was last updated on the original publication date. It is intended for reference and as a historical record only. For hep C questions, call Help4Hep BC at 1-888-411-7578.

Friday, August 24, 2018

News Recap:

Neuropsychiatric symptoms in hepatitis C patients resemble those of patients with autoimmune liver disease but are different from those in hepatitis B patients.
Chronic fatigue, mood alterations and cognitive impairment are frequent accessory symptoms of HCV-infection. Fatigue and mood alterations have also been observed in autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), but not in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infection, thus indicating an autoimmune response as possible cause of HCV-infection associated encephalopathy.

Drop in Aussies seeking hepatitis C cure.
Although treatment is available to all in Australia, many are not seeking it.  Is it stigma? Find out more….

Northern Vancouver Island VIRAL HEPATITIS Outreach Road Show Trip 2018 SlideShow: Part 2
Finally: We are now able to share with you the full slide shows and narrative from our Northern Vancouver Island Viral Hepatitis Road Show.

FDA OKs First-Line Tx for Unresectable Liver Cancer: First new upfront treatment option in over a decade.
The FDA approved the kinase inhibitor lenvatinib (Lenvima) for the first-line treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with unresectable disease.

New online calculator predicts clinical improvement in liver failure after Hep C treatment
Investigators formulated a five-factor metric known as the BE3A score that offers specialists a shared decision-making tool to predict potential improvements after treatment in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV)-associated liver failure, The five factors in the BE3A score include body mass index (BMI), encephalopathy, ascites, and serum levels of both alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and albumin.

HBV

Hindi and Punjabi HBV and HCV Pamphlets Now Available.
 HepCBC has just released four new pamphlets on HBV and HCV in Hindi and Punjabi: HBV Punjabi HBV Hindi HCV Hindi HCV Punjabi Be sure to check out all of our pamphlets and posters at: http://hepcbc.bchep.org/publications/pamphlets-posters/

Patients with chronic HBV die at younger age.
Patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection died an average of 14 years younger and had higher incidences of death from all causes compared with the general U.S. population, according to study results recently published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Serum M2BPGi Reliably Assesses Liver Fibrosis in Chronic Hepatitis B.
For patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection (CHB), serum mac-2-binding protein glycosylation isomer (M2BPGi) is a reliable marker for assessing liver fibrosis, according to results published in Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology. M2BPGi presents a noninvasive alternative to the standard invasive liver biopsy for assessing liver fibrosis in CHB. Furthermore, M2BPGi appears to correlate well with histologic stages of liver fibrosis.