(Press-News.org) Amsterdam, The Netherlands,Thursday 25 April 2013: Probiotics could emerge as a treatment plan to manage hepatic encephalopathy (HE) therapy after a new study announced at the International Liver Congress™ 2013 found they significantly reduced development of the notoriously difficult-to-treat disease.
The study analysed the efficacy of probiotics in preventing the development of HE in 160 cirrhotic patients over a period of approximately nine months and found significant improvements in reducing patients' arterial ammonia levels after three months of treatment with probiotics.
Ammonia, produced by gut bacteria, is thought to be one of the main mediators of cerebral dysfunction in HE. Probiotics work by enriching the gut flora with a non-urease producing microorganisms, which decrease ammonia production. Probiotics are live microorganisms (mostly bacteria) that produce a health benefit on the host when administered in adequate amounts.
Twice as many patients taking a placebo developed overt HE (the study's primary endpoint) compared to patients taking probiotics in the form of a capsule.
EASL's Treasurer, Prof. Mauro Bernardi welcomed the findings and said they would provide a positive impact for cirrhotic patients at risk of developing HE for whom the prognosis is typically very poor.
Prof. Bernardi said: "Hepatic encephalopathy is an insidious disease that's caused by an accumulation of toxins in the blood that are normally removed by the liver. Treatment normally involves the use of antibiotics or laxatives to suppress the production of toxic substances in the intestine but there is still a great deal of room for improvement so it will be exciting to see the results of further studies to determine if clinicians have a new form of treatment on the cards."
Hepatic encephalopathy is a spectrum of neuropsychiatric abnormalities including personality changes, intellectual impairment and reduced levels of consciousness in patients with liver failure, after exclusion of other known brain disease.
###
Disclaimer: the data referenced in this release is based on the submitted abstract. More recent data may be presented at the International Liver Congress™ 2013.
Notes to Editors
About EASL
EASL is the leading European scientific society involved in promoting research and education in hepatology. EASL attracts the foremost hepatology experts and has an impressive track record in promoting research in liver disease, supporting wider education and promoting changes in European liver policy.
EASL's main focus on education and research is delivered through numerous events and initiatives, including:
The International Liver CongressTM which is the main scientific and professional event in hepatology worldwide
Meetings including Monothematic and Special conferences, Post Graduate courses and other endorsed meetings that take place throughout the year
Clinical and Basic Schools of Hepatology, a series of events covering different aspects in the field of hepatology
Journal of Hepatology published monthly
Participation in a number of policy initiatives at European levelM.
About The International Liver CongressTM 2013
The International Liver Congress™ 2013, the 48th annual meeting of the European Association for the study of the Liver, is being held at the RAI Convention Centre in Amsterdam from April 24 – 28, 2013.
The congress annually attracts in excess of 9,000 clinicians and scientists from around the world and provides an opportunity to hear the latest research, perspectives and treatments of liver disease from principal experts in the field.
References:
1 M.K Lunia, AN OPEN LABEL RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIAL OF PROBIOTICS FOR PRIMARY PROPHYLAXIS OF HEPATIC ENCEPHALOPATHY IN PATIENTS WITH CIRRHOSIS. Presented at the International Liver CongressTM 2013
2 A. Agrawal, Secondary Prophylaxis of Hepatic Encephalopathy in Cirrhosis, An Open-Label, Randomized Controlled Trial of Lactulose, Probiotics, and No Therapy. Available
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/767674_3 [Accessed 9/4/13]
3 World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organizationof the United Nations. Health and Nutritional Properties of Probiotics in Food including Powder Milk with Live Lactic Acid Bacteria. Ava http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/fs_management/en/probiotics.pdf [Accessed 9/4/13]
Probiotics found to reduce hepatic encephalopathy
2013-04-25
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
High performance semiconductor spray paint could be a game changer for organic electronics
2013-04-25
Researchers at Wake Forest University's Organic Electronics group have come up with a novel solution to one of the biggest technological barriers facing the organic semiconductor industry today. Oana Jurchescu, an assistant professor of physics, and a team of researchers developed a high performance organic semiconductor 'spray paint' that can be applied to large surface areas without losing electric conductivity. This is a potentially game changing technology for a number of reasons.
Organic thin film transistors are currently deposited by one of three methods. Drop ...
Pushing the boundaries of transcription
2013-04-25
Like musicians in an orchestra who have the same musical score but start and finish playing at different intervals, cells with the same genes start and finish transcribing them at different points in the genome. For the first time, researchers at EMBL have described the striking diversity of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) that such start and end variation produces, even from the simple genome of yeast cells. Their findings, published today in Nature, shed new light on the importance of mRNA boundaries in determining the functional potential of genes.
Hundreds of thousands of ...
The peculiar life history of Middle American Stenamma ants
2013-04-25
Stenamma is a cryptic "leaf-litter" ant genus that occurs in moderately humid to wet forest habitats throughout the Holarctic region, Central America, and part of northwestern South America (Colombia and Ecuador). The genus was thought to be restricted primarily to the temperate zone, but recent collecting efforts have uncovered a large variety of Neotropical forms, which rival the Holarctic species in terms of morphological and behavioral diversity. The Middle American clade of Stenamma is revised in a paper published in the open access journal ZooKeys to recognize 40 ...
Discovery of a gene that controls 3 different diseases
2013-04-25
An international research consortium led by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the CIBERER and the University of Wurzburg (Germany) has discovered a gene that can cause three totally different diseases, depending on how it is altered.
The researchers, using next-generation massive ultrasequencing techniques, have sequenced the over 20,000 genes of a Fanconi anaemia patient's genome. By adopting this strategy they have succeeded in identifying pathogenic mutations responsible for this disease in the ERCC4 gene, which had already been linked to two other rare ...
Metabolic disorders predict the hardening of the arterial walls already in childhood
2013-04-25
Metabolic disorders, such as excess abdominal fat, raised blood pressure, higher levels of insulin, glucose and triglycerides and lower levels of the beneficial HDL cholesterol can be found in children as young as 6 to 8 years of age, according to a study carried out at the University of Eastern Finland. These metabolic risk factors often accumulate in overweight children and, in the newly published study, this accumulation was linked with mild artery wall stiffness. Of single disorders, higher levels of insulin, triglyceride and blood pressure were associated with artery ...
Study reveals dramatic changes in global attitudes toward domestic violence
2013-04-25
WASHINGTON, DC, April 25, 2013 — Global attitudes about domestic violence changed dramatically during the first decade of the 2000s, according to a new University of Michigan study that analyzes data from 26 low- and middle-income countries.
Nigeria had the largest change, with 65 percent of men and 52 percent of women rejecting domestic violence in 2008, compared with 48 percent and 33 percent, respectively, in 2003.
In the study, which appears in the April issue of the American Sociological Review, University of Michigan researcher Rachael Pierotti analyzes data ...
Study by Worcester Polytechnic Institute professor produces first edition of a bookworm's genome
2013-04-25
WORCESTER, Mass. -- It has co-existed quietly with humans for centuries, slurping up the spillage in beer halls and gorging on the sour paste used to bind books. Now the tiny nematode Panagrellus redivivus (P.redivivus) has emerged from relative obscurity with the publication of its complete genetic code. Further study of this worm, which is often called the beer-mat worm or, simply, the microworm, is expected to shed new light on many aspects of animal biology, including the differences between male and female organisms and the unique adaptations of parasitic worms.
Using ...
With wave of the hand, Carnegie Mellon researchers create touch-based interfaces
2013-04-25
PITTSBURGH—Researchers previously have shown that a depth camera system, such as Kinect, can be combined with a projector to turn almost any surface into a touchscreen. But now researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have demonstrated how these touch-based interfaces can be created almost at will, with the wave of a hand.
CMU's WorldKit system enables someone to rub the arm of a sofa to "paint" a remote control for her TV or swipe a hand across an office door to post his calendar from which subsequent users can "pull down" an extended version. These ad hoc interfaces ...
Leading leukemia experts: High leukemia treatment costs may be harming patients
2013-04-25
(WASHINGTON, April 25, 2013) – The increasing cost of treatments for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in the United States has reached unsustainably high levels and may be leaving many patients under- or untreated because they cannot afford care, according to a Blood Forum article supported by nearly 120 CML experts from more than 15 countries on five continents and published online today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). Blood Forum articles are a new feature in the journal that present well documented opinions on controversial topics and ...
Researchers pinpoint how trees play role in smog production
2013-04-25
After years of scientific uncertainty and speculation, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill show exactly how trees help create one of society's predominant environmental and health concerns: air pollution.
It has long been known that trees produce and emit isoprene, an abundant molecule in the air known to protect leaves from oxygen damage and temperature fluctuations. However, in 2004, researchers, contrary to popular assumptions, revealed that isoprene was likely involved in the production of particulate matter, tiny particles that can get ...