The Department of Infectious Diseases of the Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University school of medicine, is an infectious disease specialty integrating medicine, teaching, research and prevention. Now there are 6 senior professional titles, 1 postdoctoral fellow and 1 physician with a doctoral degree. It advanced the comprehensive diagnosis and treatment for viral hepatitis, liver failure, fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, autoimmune liver disease, liver cirrhosis, various infectious diseases and fever of unknown origin. Special clinics for fatty liver and clinical cure of hepatitis B have been established. The department also develops the characteristic technologies of liver biopsy and treatment of artificial liver. The department has been approved to lead local special scientific and technological development projects funded by the central government, provincial natural science foundation projects and provincial science and technology research projects. It has participated in many domestic and international multi-center clinical studies on fatty liver, published a paper in Cell Reports Medicine as co-authors; Faculty members have co-authored 3 academic monographs and obtained 2 patents.
Specialty Characteristics
1. Viral hepatitis: Rich experience and in-depth research on precise antiviral treatment of chronic hepatitis B, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B during pregnancy, antiviral treatment of hepatitis C and liver failure; capable of admitting and managing patients with all types of viral hepatitis, cirrhosis and rescue patients with liver failure. And education for patients with hepatitis B is carried out to help patients understand the disease correctly, practice self-management and improve their quality of life. Research focuses on drug resistance mechanisms of interferon and HBV nucleos(t)ide analogues.
2. Metabolic fatty liver: Research on its pathogenesis and treatment keeps pace with international standards. Based on regional cohort data from central Zhejiang, the team analyzes the disease mechanism of fatty liver, ranging from genetic abnormalities and protein alterations, metabolic imbalance, hepatic pathological changes to abnormal physiological functions. Treatment covers lifestyle intervention and pharmacotherapy. The team helps patients recognize the hazards of fatty liver and build confidence for treatment, with the ultimate goal of controlling and preventing associated complications including diabetes, coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular diseases. The department also takes part in international and domestic multi-center clinical trials for fatty liver drugs.
3. Rational application of antimicrobial agents and diagnosis and treatment of multidrug-resistant bacteria: The department is committed to bacterial resistance surveillance and research on resistance mechanisms, to optimize treatment for severe infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms.
4. Autoimmune liver diseases: The team has extensive experience in managing autoimmune liver diseases including primary biliary cholangitis, autoimmune hepatitis, primary sclerosing cholangitis and overlap syndromes. Accurate diagnosis can be achieved with combined clinical assessment and liver biopsy pathology.