Hepatitis C increased risks for cerebrovascular-related death

Hepatitis C virus infection was an independent risk predictor of cerebrovascular deaths, indicating a biological gradient of cerebrovascular mortality with increasing serum hepatitis C virus RNA levels, researchers said.

The study included residents (n=23,665, aged 30 to 65 years) from a community-based prospective cohort who were enrolled from 1991 to 1992. Residents answered structured questionnaires and provided blood samples for various serological and biochemical tests at study entry. Researchers tested serum hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA level and HCV genotype for participants seropositive for antibodies against HCV (anti-HCV).

Anti-TNF Therapy Appears Safe in Patients With Hepatitis C and Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Presented at ACG

No immediate signals of adverse problems were observed among patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who were administered infliximab, researchers said here at the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) 75th Annual Scientific Meeting.

Hepatitis E research receives funding

Researchers from the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro have received a grant of £337,000 to carry out a two-year study with partners in Glasgow and Norwich into a rare form of Hepatitis - Hepatitis E. The grant has come from the Chief Scientist's Office for Scotland and will be divided between the three centres taking part in the study.

Dr Harry Dalton, a Consultant Gastroenterologist at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust and affiliate member of the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry's European Centre for Environment and Human Health (ECEHH), will be leading a team in Cornwall. Dr Dalton and his team in Truro have been involved in developing tests to diagnose Hepatitis E, and they are regarded as one of the world leaders in this condition. In fact an unusual strain of the virus, which was found in a patient in the Cornish Centre, was sent to the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, USA. They sequenced the viral genome and it has been named Kernow C1.