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This case–control study was aimed to assess the effect of genetic variants of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) α−308 and lymphotoxin (LT) α+252 on development of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Their gene–gene interaction was also investigated. We enrolled 200 pairs of age- and sex-matched patients with cirrhotic HBV-HCC and unrelated patients with HBV-cirrhosis alone. Polymorphisms of TNFα −308 and LTα +252 were genotyped. Synergy index was used to calculate interaction between the variant genotypes. The results indicated that the frequency distribution of the variant genotypes ( TNFα −308 G/A and LTα +252 G/G) in patients with HCC were significantly higher than those in patients with cirrhosis alone. Multivariate analysis indicated that TNFα −308 G/A (odds ratio [OR], 2.34) and LTα +252 G/G (OR, 2.04) were independent risk factors for HCC. By the clinical characteristics of study population, multivariate analysis demonstrated that independent factors associated with harboring the variant genotypes included cirrhosis with Child-Pugh C (OR = 6.47 in cases and OR = 11.56 in controls) and thrombocytopenia (OR = 8.86 in cases and OR = 7.74 in controls). Calculation of synergy index (SI) indicated that there are additive interaction between TNFα −308 G/A and LTα +252 G/G on risk of HCC (SI = 1.29). In conclusion: There are independent and additive interactions between TNFα −308 G/A and LTα +252 G/G on risk for HBV-HCC. They correlated with advanced hepatic fibrosis and severe liver damage, which might contribute to a higher risk for HCC.

Summary Background Peginterferon-α–based therapy frequently leads to neutropenia. It remains unclear whether neutropenia is associated with bacterial infection in chronic hepatitis C (CHC). Aim To evaluate the risk of bacterial infection and neutropenia in patients with CHC treated with peginterferon-α/ribavirin. Methods In all, 207 patients with CHC with (group A, n = 30) and without (group B, n = 177) baseline neutropenia were treated with peginterferon-α/ribavirin. Results Group A had significantly higher rates of moderate (

An attempt on the use of secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) in studying ancient Chinese bronze is reported with an evaluation of the suitability of SIMS for the provenance study of ancient bronze objects. The advantage of using SIMS in the study of the lead isotope ratio is the high sensitivity that enables the examination of small fragments of valuable relics that are often difficult to collect. The application of SIMS in this direction widens the sampling area, which is limited by the use of thermal ionization mass spectroscopy (TIMS). The focus of the study has been placed on the precision of SIMS when compared to TIMS and the effect of sample matrices on the precision. Samples of Chinese bronze artefacts and a standard lead sample (SRM 981) were tested for their lead isotope ratios using both SIMS and TIMS. A comparison of the data obtained using the two techniques showed that SIMS results have a relatively large standard deviation, which was attributed to the non-uniformity of the ancient samples and the single-isotope detection system of the SIMS set-up used. Matrix effects were found to be small among bronze samples of different compositions. Non-conducting samples can also be analysed when a specimen isolation technique is employed. Although SIMS gave higher uncertainties than TIMS, the SIMS technique can be applied easily to differentiate the high radiogenic lead in Shang bronze artefacts from common lead. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.