Richard B. Freeman – 21 September 2004

Richard B. Freeman – 21 September 2004

Bruno Roche, Didier Samuel – 21 September 2004 – Key Points 1Long‐term prophylaxis with hepatitis B immune globulin (HBIG) significantly reduces the risk for hepatitis B virus (HBV) recurrence and increases survival. Patients with HBV cirrhosis and / or positive HBV DNA at the time of transplantation have a high risk for recurrence despite HBIG prophylaxis.2Pre–orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) antiviral treatment using lamivudine (LAM) can suppress HBV replication before transplantation and may induce clinical improvement in a subset of patients.

Kim M. Olthoff, Robert S. Brown, Francis L. Delmonico, Richard B. Freeman, Sue V. McDiarmid, Robert M. Merion, J. Michael Millis, John P. Roberts, Abraham Shaked, Russell H. Wiesner, Michael R. Lucey – 21 September 2004 – A national conference was held to review and assess data gathered since implementation of MELD and PELD and determine future directions. The objectives of the conference were to review the current system of liver allocation with a critical analysis of its strengths and weaknesses.

Carla S. Coffin, Tram N.Q. Pham, Patricia M. Mulrooney, Norma D. Churchill, Tomasz I. Michalak – 20 September 2004 – Antibodies against virus nucleocapsid (anticore) normally accompany hepadnaviral hepatitis but they may also occur in the absence of symptoms and other serological indicators of the infection. This situation can be encountered following a clinically and serologically unapparent exposure to hepatitis B virus (HBV) or after recovery from hepatitis B.

Ke Qi, Hongming Qiu, Dongfeng Sun, Gerald Y. Minuk, Michael Lizardo, John Rutherford, F. William Orr – 20 September 2004 – Metastases rarely occur in human livers with cirrhosis in clinical studies. We postulated that this phenomenon would also occur in experimental cirrhosis. Cirrhosis was established in C57BL/6 mice by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) gastrogavage. B16F1 melanoma cells were injected into the mesenteric vein to induce hepatic metastases. Contrary to our postulate, there was greater than 4‐fold increase in metastasis in animals with cirrhosis compared to controls.

Shiro Yokohama, Masashi Yoneda, Masakazu Haneda, Satoshi Okamoto, Mituyoshi Okada, Kazunobu Aso, Takenao Hasegawa, Yoshihiko Tokusashi, Naoyuki Miyokawa, Kimihide Nakamura – 20 September 2004 – The therapeutic efficacy of angiotensin II receptor antagonist, losartan, was studied in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Seven patients with both NASH and hypertension were treated with losartan (50 mg/d) for 48 weeks.

David C. Cronin, J. Michael Millis – 16 September 2004

Arie Regev, Enrique Molina, Rosana Moura, Pablo A. Bejarano, Amr Khaled, Phillip Ruiz, Kris Arheart, Mariana Berho, Cinthia B. Drachenberg, Patricia Mendez, Christopher O'Brien, Lennox Jeffers, Andreas Tzakis, Eugene R. Schiff – 16 September 2004 – Histopathologic assessment is considered essential for the differentiation of recurrent hepatitis C (RHC) from acute cellular rejection (ACR) after liver transplantation (LT); however, there is limited information regarding its reliability.

Peter L. Abt, Rachel Rapaport‐Kelz, Niraj M. Desai, Adam Frank, Seema Sonnad, Elizabeth Rand, James F. Markmann, Abraham Shaked, Kim M. Olthoff – 16 September 2004 – Segmental liver transplantation with living donor (LD), reduced cadaveric (Reduced), and split cadaveric (Split) allografts has expanded the availability of size‐appropriate organs for pediatric recipients. The relevance of recipient age to the selection of graft type has not been fully explored, but could offer the potential to maximize recipient outcome and donor utilization.