Marie‐Christine Rousselet, Sophie Michalak, Florence Dupré, Anne Croué, Pierre Bedossa, Jean‐Paul Saint‐André, Paul Calès – 19 January 2005 – Inter‐observer agreement on activity and fibrosis scores used in chronic viral hepatitis has only been studied under selected conditions. The aim of this study was to identify the sources of variability due to specimen characteristics and observers. This study included 254 liver specimens and 15 pathologists and used the Metavir score.

Andrea Eberle, Roland Reinehr, Stephan Becker, Dieter Häussinger – 19 January 2005 – Hyperosmolarity‐ and CD95 ligand (CD95L)‐induced interactions between CD95 (Fas/APO‐1) and the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) involve EGFR‐catalyzed CD95 tyrosine phosphorylation. Such interactions were studied by means of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and CD95 receptor mutagenesis in Huh7 hepatoma cells.

Tsutomu Masaki, Asahiro Morishita, Shigeki Kuriyama – 19 January 2005

Winston Dunn, Laith H. Jamil, Larry S. Brown, Russell H. Wiesner, W. Ray Kim, K. V. Narayanan Menon, Michael Malinchoc, Patrick S. Kamath, Vijay Shah – 19 January 2005 – Assessing severity of disease in patients with alcoholic hepatitis (AH) is useful for predicting mortality, guiding treatment decisions, and stratifying patients for therapeutic trials. The traditional disease‐specific prognostic model used for this purpose is the Maddrey discriminant function (DF).

Cynthia W. Ko, Shirley A. A. Beresford, Scott J. Schulte, Alvin M. Matsumoto, Sum P. Lee – 19 January 2005 – Gallstones are strongly associated with higher parity in women. This study prospectively assessed the incidence, natural history, and risk factors for biliary sludge and stones during pregnancy and the postpartum in 3,254 women at an army medical center. Women with a prior cholecystectomy or with stones at their first study ultrasound were excluded. Gallbladder ultrasound and subject questionnaires were obtained in each trimester and at 4 to 6 weeks postpartum.

Jorge A. Bezerra, Ronald J. Sokol – 19 January 2005

Rahul A. Nathwani, Shireen Pais, Telfer B. Reynolds, Neil Kaplowitz – 19 January 2005 – Although elevation of the levels of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) following liver injury is well known, confusion exists concerning skeletal muscle injury as the cause of this rise. We reviewed the records of 16 patients who had muscle necrosis without evidence of liver disease. The patients were divided into three groups: extreme exercise, polymyositis, and seizures. All patients exhibited markedly elevated creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase levels consistent with muscle injury.

Paul B. Watkins – 19 January 2005

Shiobhan R. Weston, Wendy Leyden, Rose Murphy, Nathan M. Bass, Beth P. Bell, M. Michele Manos, Norah A. Terrault – 19 January 2005 – We performed a cross‐sectional study of newly diagnosed cases of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) identified between December 1998 and December 2000 in the Chronic Liver Disease Surveillance Study. We compared the demographic and clinical features of NAFLD in a racially diverse representative U.S. population (Alameda County, CA).

Chih‐Hao Lin, Shyr‐Chyr Chen, Patrick Chow‐In Ko – 19 January 2005