Brian R. Edlin – 12 December 2012 – Hepatitis C is the most prevalent bloodborne viral disease in the United States and the deadliest. This year, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) will update its 2004 hepatitis C guideline, which recommends against screening asymptomatic adults for hepatitis C. This guideline has hampered public health efforts to encourage screening and identify and refer infected persons for care by declaring that such interventions were not supported by the evidence.

Safa Al‐Shamma, Balint Eross, Simon Mclaughlin – 12 December 2012

Josh Levitsky, Gabriel C. Oniscu – 12 December 2012 – From May 16–19, 2012, the International Liver Transplantation Society held its annual congress in San Francisco, CA. More than 1300 registrants attended the meeting, which included a premeeting conference entitled Balancing Risk in Liver Transplantation, focused topic sessions, and a variety of oral and poster presentations. This report is not all‐inclusive and focuses on specific research abstracts on key topics in liver transplantation.

Paolo Simone, Faouzi Saliba, Lutz Fischer – 10 December 2012

Belen Gil‐Alzugaray, Ana Chopitea, Mercedes Iñarrairaegui, Jose I. Bilbao, Macarena Rodriguez‐Fraile, Javier Rodriguez, Alberto Benito, Inés Dominguez, Delia D'Avola, Jose I. Herrero, Jorge Quiroga, Jesus Prieto, Bruno Sangro – 10 December 2012 – Radioembolization (RE)‐induced liver disease (REILD) has been defined as jaundice and ascites appearing 1 to 2 months after RE in the absence of tumor progression or bile duct occlusion.

Vijay Krishnamoorthy, Katharina Beckmann, Mark Mueller, Deepak Sharma, Monica S. Vavilala – 10 December 2012 – An elevation of the intracranial pressure (ICP) secondary to cerebral edema is a major contributor to morbidity and mortality in acute liver failure. In addition, invasive ICP monitoring in this setting is controversial because coagulopathy predisposes patients to hemorrhagic complications. In this case report, we describe the novel use of optic nerve sheath diameter monitoring as a noninvasive modality for checking for acute elevations in ICP in this setting.

Rishi Agarwal, Joseph Buell, Nathan J. Shores – 7 December 2012

Yan Wu, Dong‐Ming Kuang, Wei‐Dong Pan, Yun‐Le Wan, Xiang‐Ming Lao, Dian Wang, Xue‐Feng Li, Limin Zheng – 7 December 2012 – Defects in natural killer (NK) cell functions are necessary for tumor immune escape, but their underlying regulatory mechanisms in human cancers remain largely unknown. Here we show, in detailed studies of NK cells in 294 untreated patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), that accumulation of functional NK cells in HCC tissues could predict improved survival of patients.

Rishi Agarwal, Joseph Buell, Nathan J. Shores – 7 December 2012

Yuan Chen, Xiulong Song, Leila Valanejad, Alexander Vasilenko, Vijay More, Xi Qiu, Weikang Chen, Yurong Lai, Angela Slitt, Matthew Stoner, Bingfang Yan, Ruitang Deng – 5 December 2012 – As a canalicular bile acid effluxer, the bile salt export pump (BSEP) plays a vital role in maintaining bile acid homeostasis. BSEP deficiency leads to severe cholestasis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in young children. Regardless of the etiology, chronic inflammation is the common pathological process for HCC development.