Liver transplantation for autoimmune hepatitis and the success of aggressive corticosteroid withdrawal

Jeffrey Campsen, Michael A. Zimmerman, James F. Trotter, Michael Wachs, Thomas Bak, Tracy Steinberg, Maria Kaplan, Franklin Wright, Igal Kam – 28 August 2008 – Our center has attempted to minimize corticosteroid (CS) use in all of our orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) recipients. Because patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) typically require CSs after transplantation, we reviewed our experience in this cohort of patients to determine (1) patient outcomes including recurrent disease and (2) long‐term requirements for CS use in AIH patients.

The extent of vacuolation in non–heart‐beating porcine donor liver grafts prior to transplantation predicts their viability

Diethard Monbaliu, Louis Libbrecht, Rita De Vos, Katrien Vekemans, Hugo Walter, Qiang Liu, Veerle Heedfeld, Vera Goossens, Jacques Pirenne, Tania Roskams – 28 August 2008 – Livers exposed to prolonged warm ischemia (WI), such as those from non–heart‐beating donors (NHBDs), are at higher risk of primary graft nonfunction (PNF). In a pig model of liver transplantation (LTx) from NHBDs, hepatocellular vacuolation, focal hepatocyte dropout, congestion, and sinusoidal dilatation appeared on biopsies taken after exposure to WI.

Iron overload and unique susceptibility of liver transplant recipients to disseminated disease due to opportunistic pathogens

Nina Singh, Hsin‐Yun Sun – 28 August 2008 – The propensity of liver transplant recipients to develop more fulminant disease presentation and a higher risk of disseminated disease due to a number of opportunistic infections, including invasive aspergillosis, cryptococcosis, zygomycosis, may be related to iron overload. Abnormalities in iron homeostasis may also be a contributor to severe manifestations due to other pathogens such as cytomegalovirus and Staphylococcus aureus in liver transplant recipients.

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