Giorgio Bedogni, Lucia Miglioli, Flora Masutti, Claudio Tiribelli, Giulio Marchesini, Stefano Bellentani – 13 May 2005 – The prevalence of and the risk factors for fatty liver have not undergone a formal evaluation in a representative sample of the general population. We therefore performed a cross‐sectional study in the town of Campogalliano (Modena, Italy), within the context of the Dionysos Project. Of 5,780 eligible persons aged 18 to 75 years, 3,345 (58%) agreed to participate in the study.

Christophe Hézode, Françoise Roudot‐Thoraval, Son Nguyen, Pascale Grenard, Boris Julien, Elie‐Serge Zafrani, Jean‐Michel Pawlostky, Daniel Dhumeaux, Sophie Lotersztajn, Ariane Mallat – 12 May 2005 – Cannabinoids present in Cannabis sativa (marijuana) exert biological effects via cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2. We recently demonstrated that CB1 and CB2 receptors regulate progression of experimental liver fibrosis. We therefore investigated the impact of cannabis smoking on fibrosis progression rate in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC).

Louis Libbrecht, Geert Maleux, Chris Verslype, Frederik Nevens, Tania Roskams – 12 May 2005

Mical S. Campbell, George A. Makar – 12 May 2005

Shruti Mehta, David Thomas, Mark Sulkowski – 6 May 2005

Juan Macías, José A. Mira, Salvador Vergara, Juan A. Pineda – 2 May 2005

Alfredo Marzano, Pietro Lampertico, Vincenzo Mazzaferro, Silvia Carenzi, Mauro Vigano, Raffaele Romito, Andrea Pulvirenti, Alessandro Franchello, Massimo Colombo, Mauro Salizzoni, Mario Rizzetto – 21 April 2005 – The combination of lamivudine and hepatitis B immunoglobulin (HBIG) reduces the risk of hepatitis B virus (HBV) recurrence after liver transplantation (LT). However, the efficacy of this strategy and the need for combined therapy with adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) in patients who select lamivudine‐resistant strains (YMDD) before surgery is still unknown.

Maud Bessems, Benedict M. Doorschodt, Arlène K. van Vliet, Thomas M. van Gulik – 21 April 2005 – For experimental machine perfusion (MP) of the liver, the modified University of Wisconsin solution (UW‐G) is most often used. In our search for an enriched MP preservation solution, Polysol was developed. Polysol is enriched with various amino acids, vitamins, and other nutrients for the liver metabolism. The aim of this study was to compare Polysol with UW‐G for MP preservation of the liver. Rat livers were preserved during 24 hours with hypothermic MP using UW‐G (n = 5) or Polysol (n = 5).

Neal R. Barshes, G. Douglas Myers, Dean Lee, Saul J. Karpen, Timothy C. Lee, Akash J. Patel, Milton Finegold, John A. Goss – 21 April 2005 – Graft‐versus‐host disease (GVHD) often occurs after bone marrow transplantation (BMT). GVHD may lead to cirrhosis or complete destruction of the bile ducts, and few effective treatment options exist for such cases. Orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) has been described as an option, but to date the patient survival, graft survival, and GVHD recurrence rates after OLT have been unknown.

Hector Rodriguez‐Luna, Hugo E. Vargas – 21 April 2005 – Key Points