Anita Blanka Tryc, Henning Pflugrad, Annemarie Goldbecker, Hannelore Barg‐Hock, Christian P. Strassburg, Hartmut Hecker, Karin Weissenborn – 8 April 2014 – Patients after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) may show cognitive dysfunction. To date, it has not been clear whether this dysfunction is due to residual hepatic encephalopathy (HE) or new‐onset cognitive disturbances. Just as little is known about the course and clinical significance.

Michael J. Krowka, Rodrigo Cartin‐Ceba – 8 April 2014

Michael L. Volk, Meghan Roney, Angela Fagerlin – 7 April 2014 – Prior studies have shown that patients are reluctant to accept donor‐specific risks, and transplant professionals lack an effective and time‐efficient means of obtaining informed consent. We designed and pilot‐tested a Web‐based patient decision aid (DA) on organ quality. The DA was administered to 53 liver transplant candidates (median Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease score = 14, range = 7‐26), and they took a mean of 15 minutes to complete it. Questions about knowledge and attitudes were asked before and after the DA.

Min‐Jun Wang, Fei Chen, Jian‐Xiu Li, Chang‐Cheng Liu, Hai‐Bin Zhang, Yong Xia, Bing Yu, Pu You, Dao Xiang, Lian Lu, Hao Yao, Uyunbilig Borjigin, Guang‐Shun Yang, Kirk J. Wangensteen, Zhi‐Ying He, Xin Wang, Yi‐Ping Hu – 7 April 2014 – A better understanding of hepatocyte senescence could be used to treat age‐dependent disease processes of the liver. Whether continuously proliferating hepatocytes could avoid or reverse senescence has not yet been fully elucidated.

Ashwin Balagopal, Abraham J. Kandathil, Yvonne H. Higgins, Jonathan Wood, Justin Richer, Jeffrey Quinn, Lois Eldred, Zhiping Li, Stuart C. Ray, Mark S. Sulkowski, David L. Thomas – 5 April 2014 – Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) cause substantial mortality, especially in persons chronically infected with both viruses. HIV infection raises plasma HCV RNA levels and diminishes the response to exogenous alpha interferon (IFN). The degree to which antiretroviral therapy (ART) control of infection overcomes these HIV effects is unknown.

Michael D. Leise, Nelson Leung, Ziad El‐Zoghby, Humberto C. Gonzalez Gonzalez, Jane H. Cerhan, Scott L. Nyberg – 4 April 2014

Kohta Iguchi, Etsuro Hatano, Kenya Yamanaka, Motohiko Sato, Gen Yamamoto, Yosuke Kasai, Tatsuya Okamoto, Masayuki Okuno, Kojiro Taura, Kyoko Fukumoto, Kazuyuki Ueno, Shinji Uemoto – 4 April 2014 – Excessive portal flow to a small remnant liver or small‐for‐size graft is a primary factor of small‐for‐size syndrome. We demonstrated that olprinone (OLP), a phosphodiesterase III inhibitor, had a hepatoprotective effect in a rat extended hepatectomy model and a small‐for‐size liver transplantation model through a modification of the portal venous pressure (PVP).

Kymberly D. Watt, Chun Fan, Terry Therneau, Julie K. Heimbach, Eric C. Seaberg, Michael R. Charlton – 2 April 2014 – In the nontransplant setting, aberrant serum adipokine levels are associated with cardiovascular (CV) disease. The effects of liver transplantation (LT) on serum adipokine levels and their association with post‐LT CV disease have not been studied.

John Scott – 2 April 2014

Salvatore Piano, Lucio Marchioro, Elisabetta Gola, Silvia Rosi, Filippo Morando, Marta Cavallin, Antonietta Sticca, Silvano Fasolato, Giovanni Forza, Anna Chiara Frigo, Mario Plebani, Giacomo Zanus, Umberto Cillo, Angelo Gatta, Paolo Angeli – 2 April 2014 – The detection of alcohol consumption in liver transplant candidates (LTCs) and liver transplant recipients (LTRs) is required to enable a proper assessment of transplant eligibility and early management of alcohol relapse, respectively.