e., significant or advanced fibrosis. However, although the changes in LS values elicited by the meal do not offer any advantage in the prediction of the fibrosis stage when compared with premeal baseline values, a peak delta LS increase ≥8 kPa could further confirm of the presence of cirrhosis. These findings highlight a general variability in the factors regulating the adaptation of the hepatic microcirculation to postprandial hyperemia and, in turn, the changes in liver stiffness. Therefore,

not surprisingly, changes in LS values occurring after the meal test do not offer any advantage for discriminating Child A cirrhosis patients from Child B and for predicting the presence or absence of esophageal varices when compared with baseline stiffness values. In conclusion, the results of the present study provide definitive evidence I-BET-762 in vitro GSK2118436 order of the confounding effect of a meal on the accuracy of LS measurements and suggest that a fasting period of 120 minutes should be observed before the performance of TE. The impact of the meal on LS values is proportional to the stage of fibrosis, with the highest delta values in patients with cirrhosis. In this specific stage of the disease, a peak delta LS increase ≥8 kPa further confirms the presence of cirrhosis, although, due to a broad individual variability the postmeal variation in LS, do not

offer additional diagnostic advantages when compared to basal LS values. The authors thank Dr. Juan Abraldes Gonzalez, Liver Unit, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, for helpful suggestions and critical revision of this work. “
“Aim:  We compared the ability of five staging system

to predict survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with chemoembolization. Methods:  The study subjects were 214 patients with HCC treated with repeated chemoembolization alone using cisplatin and lipiodol. Predictors of survival were assessed by multivariate analysis. Before chemoembolization was carried out, the modified Japan Integrated Staging (m-JIS), Japan Integrated Staging (JIS score), Barcelona (BCLC) stage, Liver Cancer Study Group of Japan/Tumor–Node–Metastasis (LCSGJ/TNM) and Italian score (CLIP score) were checked. To validate the prognostic value of these staging systems, MCE the survival curve was obtained and analyzed by the Kaplan–Meier method. Discriminatory ability and predictive power were compared using Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) score and the likelihood ratio (LR) χ2. Results:  Overall survival was 1 year in 82.9%, 3 years in 39.9% and 5 years in 15.1%. Multivariate analysis identified more than 90% lipiodol accumulation (grade I) after the first chemoembolization (P = 0.001), absence of portal vein tumor thrombosis (PVTT) (P < 0.001) and liver damage A (P = 0.012) as independent determinants of survival.