Cognitive impairment and electroencephalographic alterations before and after liver transplantation: What is reversible?

Francesca Campagna, Sara Montagnese, Sami Schiff, Anna Biancardi, Daniela Mapelli, Paolo Angeli, Carlo Poci, Umberto Cillo, Carlo Merkel, Angelo Gatta, Piero Amodio – 9 May 2014 – The influence of liver transplantation (LT) on mental performance is debated, as is the role of pretransplant overt hepatic encephalopathy (OHE). The aim of this study was to evaluate the time course of the neuropsychological and electroencephalogram (EEG) features of patients with cirrhosis before and after LT with respect to prior OHE.

Cylindromatosis gene CYLD regulates hepatocyte growth factor expression in hepatic stellate cells through interaction with histone deacetylase 7

Rajeswara R. Pannem, Christoph Dorn, Claus Hellerbrand, Ramin Massoumi – 9 May 2014 – Hepatic fibrosis is considered as a physiological wound‐healing response to liver injury. The process involves several factors, such as hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), which restrains hepatic injury and facilitates reversibility of fibrotic reaction in response to an acute insult. Chronic liver injury and sustained inflammation cause progressive fibrosis and, ultimately, organ dysfunction. The mechanisms tipping the balance from restoration to progressive liver tissue scarring are not well understood.

Sorafenib use in the transplant setting

Giulia Castelli, Patrizia Burra, Anna Giacomin, Alessandro Vitale, Marco Senzolo, Umberto Cillo, Fabio Farinati – 9 May 2014 – Liver transplantation (LT) is an established treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and sorafenib (SFN) is a validated treatment for patients harboring advanced tumors. It is still not clear whether the combination of the 2 treatments, with SFN used in the neoadjuvant, adjuvant, or recurrence setting, is useful and cost‐effective.

Sanguineous normothermic machine perfusion improves hemodynamics and biliary epithelial regeneration in donation after cardiac death porcine livers

Qiang Liu, Ahmed Nassar, Kevin Farias, Laura Buccini, William Baldwin, Martin Mangino, Ana Bennett, Colin O'Rourke, Toshiro Okamoto, Teresa Diago Uso, John Fung, Kareem Abu‐Elmagd, Charles Miller, Cristiano Quintini – 8 May 2014 – The effects of normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) on the postreperfusion hemodynamics and extrahepatic biliary duct histology of donation after cardiac death (DCD) livers after transplantation have not been addressed thoroughly and represent the objective of this study.

Impaired functional capacity in potential liver transplant candidates predicts short‐term mortality before transplantation

Maggie M. G. Ow, Paul Erasmus, Gary Minto, Richard Struthers, Moby Joseph, Aileen Smith, Usama M. Warshow, Matthew E. Cramp, Tim J. S. Cross – 8 May 2014 – Liver transplantation (LT) is a lifesaving treatment. Because of the shortage of donor organs, some patients will not survive long enough to receive a transplant. The identification of LT candidates at increased risk of short‐term mortality without transplantation may affect listing decisions.

Telaprevir‐based treatment effects on hepatitis C virus in liver and blood

Andrew H. Talal, Rositsa B. Dimova, Eileen Z. Zhang, Min Jiang, Marina S. Penney, James C. Sullivan, Martyn C. Botfield, Ananthsrinivas Chakilam, Rishikesh Sawant, Christine M. Cervini, Marija Zeremski, Ira M. Jacobson, Ann D. Kwong – 8 May 2014 – Understanding hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication has been limited by access to serial samples of liver, the primary site of viral replication. Our understanding of how HCV replicates and develops drug‐resistant variants in the liver is limited.

Alpha‐fetoprotein level > 1000 ng/mL as an exclusion criterion for liver transplantation in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma meeting the Milan criteria

Bilal Hameed, Neil Mehta, Gonzalo Sapisochin, John P. Roberts, Francis Y. Yao – 6 May 2014 – Serum alpha‐fetoprotein (AFP) has been increasingly recognized as a marker for a poor prognosis after liver transplantation (LT) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Many published reports, however, have included a large proportion of patients with HCC beyond the Milan criteria, and the effects of incorporating AFP as an exclusion criterion for LT remain unclear.

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