Davide Ghinolfi, Paolo De Simone, Daniele Pezzati, Giulia Cirillo, Franco Filipponi – 15 April 2016

Ann‐Lii Cheng, Sumitra Thongprasert, Ho Yeong Lim, Wattana Sukeepaisarnjaroen, Tsai‐Shen Yang, Cheng‐Chung Wu, Yee Chao, Stephen L. Chan, Masatoshi Kudo, Masafumi Ikeda, Yoon‐Koo Kang, Hongming Pan, Kazushi Numata, Guohong Han, Binaifer Balsara, Yong Zhang, Ana‐Marie Rodriguez, Yi Zhang, Yongyu Wang, Ronnie T. P.

Jessica Liu, Hwai‐I Yang, Mei‐Hsuan Lee, Chin‐Lan Jen, Richard Batrla‐Utermann, Sheng‐Nan Lu, Li‐Yu Wang, San‐Lin You, Chien‐Jen Chen – 15 April 2016 – Serum levels of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA (≤2000 IU/mL) and hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) (<1000 IU/mL) have been shown to distinguish inactive carriers with high accuracy. The goal of this study was to validate the predictability of one‐time measurement of quantitative HBsAg and HBV DNA levels for inactive carrier status and chronic hepatitis B (CHB) progression in a community‐based cohort.

James Neuberger – 15 April 2016 – Liver transplantation (LT) services in the United Kingdom are provided by 7 designated transplant centers for a population of approximately 64 million. The number of deceased organ donors has grown, and in 2014‐2015 it was 1282 (570 donation after circulatory death and 772 donation after brain death). Donor risk is increasing. In 2014‐2015, there were 829 LTs from deceased and 38 from living donors. The common causes for transplantation are liver cell cancer, viral hepatitis, and alcohol‐related liver disease.

Frank Tacke, Daniela C. Kroy, Ana Paula Barreiros, Ulf P. Neumann – 15 April 2016 – Liver transplantation (LT) is a well‐accepted procedure for end‐stage liver disease in Germany. In 2015, 1489 patients were admitted to the waiting list (including 1308 new admissions), with the leading etiologies being fibrosis and cirrhosis (n = 349), alcoholic liver disease (n = 302), and hepatobiliary malignancies (n = 220). Organ allocation in Germany is regulated within the Eurotransplant system based on urgency as expressed by the Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease score.

Amelia J. Hessheimer, Andrés Cárdenas, Juan C. García‐Valdecasas, Constantino Fondevila – 15 April 2016 – The pool of livers for transplantation consists of an increasingly greater proportion of marginal grafts, in particular those arising through donation after circulatory determination of death (DCD). However, a primary factor limiting the use of marginal livers, and, thereby, the applicability of liver transplantation in general, is concern over the subsequent development of ischemic‐type biliary lesion (ITBL).

Gomathy Narasimhan, Venugopal Kota, Mohamed Rela – 15 April 2016 – Liver transplantation as an established form of treatment for end‐stage liver disease has gained acceptance in India over the last 10 years. Liver transplantation in India has unique features that have contributed to the growth of both deceased donor and living donor transplantations of which living donor currently dominates the picture. Living donor contributes to 80% and deceased donor to 20% of the liver transplants currently performed in India.

Orith Waisbourd‐Zinman, Hong Koh, Shannon Tsai, Pierre‐Marie Lavrut, Christine Dang, Xiao Zhao, Michael Pack, Jeff Cave, Mark Hawes, Kyung A. Koo, John R. Porter, Rebecca G. Wells – 15 April 2016 – Biliary atresia, the most common indication for pediatric liver transplantation, is a fibrotic disease of unknown etiology affecting the extrahepatic bile ducts of newborns. The recently described toxin biliatresone causes lumen obstruction in mouse cholangiocyte spheroids and represents a new model of biliary atresia.

Lise L. Gluud, Hendrik Vilstrup, Marsha Y. Morgan – 15 April 2016 – Nonabsorbable disaccharides (NADs) have been used to treat hepatic encephalopathy (HE) since 1966. However, a Cochrane Review, published in 2004, found insufficient evidence to recommend their use in this context. This updated systematic review evaluates the effects of the NADs, lactulose and lactitol, for the treatment and prevention of HE in patients with cirrhosis.

Sarah Sheibani, Saro Khemichian, John J. Kim, Linda Hou, Arthur W. Yan, James Buxbaum, Lily Dara, Loren Laine – 15 April 2016 – The appropriate interval between ligation sessions for treatment of esophageal variceal bleeding is uncertain. The optimal interval would provide variceal eradication as rapidly as possible to lessen early rebleeding while minimizing ligation‐induced adverse events. We randomly assigned patients hospitalized with acute esophageal variceal bleeding who had successful ligation at presentation to repeat ligation at 1‐week or 2‐week intervals.