Andres T. Blei – 24 November 2004

Eyal Shteyer, Yunjun Liao, Louis J. Muglia, Paul W. Hruz, David A. Rudnick – 24 November 2004 – The liver responds to injury with regulated tissue regeneration. During early regeneration, the liver accumulates fat. Neither the mechanisms responsible for nor the functional significance of this transient steatosis have been determined. In this study, we examined patterns of gene expression associated with hepatic fat accumulation in regenerating liver and tested the hypothesis that disruption of hepatic fat accumulation would be associated with impaired hepatic regeneration.

Bernd Kronenberger, Eva Herrmann, Florence Micol, Michael von Wagner, Stefan Zeuzem – 24 November 2004 – The aim of the present study was to compare viral kinetics between patients with chronic hepatitis C and persistently normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels and those with elevated ALT levels.

Chun‐Yi Lu, Bor‐Luen Chiang, Wei‐Kuang Chi, Mei‐Hwei Chang, Yen‐Hsuan Ni, Hsu‐Mei Hsu, Shiing‐Jer Twu, Ih‐Jen Su, Li‐Min Huang, Chin‐Yun Lee – 24 November 2004 – Neonatal immunization with hepatitis B (HB) vaccine is highly effective; however, more needs to be learned about the duration of protection and indications for boosters. We measured antibody to HB core antigen (anti‐HBc), HB surface antigen (HBsAg), and pre‐ and postbooster titers of HBsAg antibody (anti‐HBs) 15 years after primary neonatal immunization with plasma‐derived HB vaccines in 2 cohorts of 15‐year‐old children.

Albert Lau, Curt Bay, Abdul Nadir – 24 November 2004

Anthony T. Dann, Anna P. Kenyon, Paul T. Seed, Lucilla Poston, Andrew H. Shennan, Rachel M. Tribe – 24 November 2004 – Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a pregnancy‐specific liver disease associated with poor maternal and fetal outcome. The diagnosis is based on pruritus with abnormal liver function in the absence of other pathological conditions. However, pruritus in pregnancy is common, and it may be the only presenting feature in ICP.

Gabriela De Larrañaga, Silvia Perés, Jorge Benetucci – 24 November 2004

Ruoqing Huang, Thomas D. Schiano, May Jennifer Amolat, Charles M. Miller, Swan N. Thung, Romil Saxena – 19 November 2004 – Imaging studies show complete restoration of liver volume in adult recipients of right lobe allografts within 2–3 weeks of living donor transplantation (LDLT). However, it is not known if this growth is associated with restoration of hepatic microarchitecture. We compared 21 biopsies without significant pathology from LDLT recipients with 23 biopsies from adult recipients of cadaveric donor liver transplantation (CDLT) performed within 3 months of transplantation.

Guy W. Neff, Christopher B. O'Brien, Jose Nery, Norah J. Shire, Seigo Nishida, Julia delaGarza, Marzia Montalbano, Kamran Safdar, Phillip Ruiz, Eric Rideman, Jose A. Gascon, Andreas G. Tzakis, Juan Madariaga, Steven M. Rudich – 19 November 2004 – Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is becoming the most common indication for liver retransplantation (ReLTx). This study was a retrospective review of the medical records of liver transplant patients at our institution to determine factors that would identify the best candidates for ReLTx resulting from allograft failure because of HCV recurrence.

Paige M. Porrett, Shashank S. Desai, Kathleen J. Timmins, Carol R. Twomey, Seema S. Sonnad, Kim M. Olthoff – 19 November 2004 – Through May 2004, 33 combined orthotopic heart‐liver transplants (OHT/OLT) have been performed nationwide. No published data exist to date regarding outcomes of patients awaiting such transplants, although progression of two organ disease processes may contribute to premature death for waiting patients.