title: Ultrasonic diagnosis of patients with clonorchiasis and preliminary study of pathogenic mechanism.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To discuss the liver function damage mechanism of patients with clonorchiasis by analyzing the ultrasound characteristics, liver function, change of the serum inflammatory factors and cell apoptosis factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Color Doppler ultrasound technique was adopted to detect the portal vein and blood flow change of patients with clonorchiasis; ELISA was used to determine the level of different serum inflammatory factors. The levels of serum total bilirubin, serum albumin and glutamic-pyruvic transaminase were detected by automatic biochemical analyzer. Western blot was used to determine the expression of proteins relevant to apoptosis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with the health control group, the trunk diameter of portal vein and the thickness of spleen, as well as the hepatic artery pulsation index of clonorchiasis patients increased obviously, the mean blood flow velocity of portal vein (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01) decreased. The content of total bilirubin and transaminase in plasma increased significantly, but albumin decreased (P < 0.05). Levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and IFN-γ increased remarkably, and the level of every factor was significantly different among patients with Child-Pugh , Child-Pugh II and Child-Pugh III classification of liver function (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). With the exacerbation of liver dysfunction, levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and IFN-γ gradually increased (P < 0.05). Compared with the healthy control group, the expression quantity of apoptosis protein Fas, FasL, Bax and Caspase-3 increased significantly (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01), but Bcl-2 decreased (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Changes of ultrasonic characteristics and liver dysfunction, caused by liver fluke infection, may be related to that both inflammatory response and apoptosis response have participated in the pathogenic process and liver damage course of clonorchiasis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ultrasound, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China. Electronic address: fanmei772@163.com.
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China.
authors.forename: Chun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Henan Experimental Kindergarden, Zhengzhou 450052, China.
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China.
authors.forename: Ji-Mei
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Dou
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathphysiology, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China.
authors.forename: Pei
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, China.
authors.forename: Han-Qi
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Anyang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Anyang, China.
authors.forename: Yan-Bing
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Fan
keywords: Cell apoptosis; Clonorchiasis; Inflammatory reaction; Ultrasonic diagnosis