Ryan A. McTaggart, Norah A. Terrault, Andrew J. Vardanian, Alan Bostrom, Sandy Feng – 23 July 2004 – Although recurrent hepatitis C (HCV) occurs universally after liver transplantation (LT), its tempo and severity are variable and unpredictable. Diagnosis and treatment of early acute rejection (EAR) likely affect the course of recurrent HCV disease. We have studied a contemporary cohort of LT recipients to reexamine risk factors for EAR. We hypothesized that HCV etiology may represent a significant risk factor for EAR for many reasons.

Mark W. Russo, Joseph A. Galanko, Roshan Shrestha, Michael W. Fried, Paul Watkins – 23 July 2004 – Studies of acute liver failure from drugs have included cases mostly attributed to acetaminophen (APAP) but have reported limited data on other drugs. We used the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) liver transplant database from 1990 to 2002 to identify recipients and estimate a U.S. population‐based rate of liver transplantation due to acute liver failure from drugs. Patients were identified if their diagnosis was acute hepatic necrosis from an implicated drug at the time of transplant.

Vivian S. Lee, Glyn R. Morgan, Jennifer C. Lin, Carol A. Nazzaro, Jerry S. Chang, Lewis W. Teperman, Glenn A. Krinsky – 23 July 2004 – Our objective was to investigate the coexistence of vascular and biliary anatomic variants, the latter of which are known to increase the risk of biliary complications in living liver donor transplantation.

30 June 2004

30 June 2004

Zachary D. Goodman – 30 June 2004

Jayant A. Talwalkar, Paul Angulo, C. Daniel Johnson, Bret T. Petersen, Keith D. Lindor – 30 June 2004 – Investigations examining the use of magnetic resonance cholangiography (MRC) for the diagnosis of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) have described comparable accuracy when compared to endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). The effectiveness of MRC based on overall cost, however, remains unknown. Our aim was to determine the average cost per correct diagnosis using MRC or ERCP as the initial testing strategy for the diagnosis of PSC.

Takayuki Masaki, Seiichi Chiba, Hiroshi Tatsukawa, Tohru Yasuda, Hitoshi Noguchi, Masataka Seike, Hironobu Yoshimatsu – 30 June 2004 – Adiponectin, an adipocytokine, has been identified in adipose tissue, and its receptors are widely distributed in many tissues, including the liver. The present study was performed to clarify the role of adiponectin in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced liver injury using KK‐Ay obese mice. We analyzed the effects of adiponectin pretreatment on liver injury induced by D‐galactosamine/LPS (GalN/LPS) in KK‐Ay obese mice.

Stefan Mauss, Florian Berger, Joerg Goelz, Bernhard Jacob, Günther Schmutz – 30 June 2004 – We examined the feasibility of hepatitis C treatment in patients on opioid maintenance. One hundred patients with chronic hepatitis C, 50 on methadone maintenance, and 50 with no intravenous drug use or opioid maintenance for at least 5 years were prospectively matched for sex, age, hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype and HCV RNA. The primary end point was undetectable HCV RNA at 24 weeks posttreatment.

Motoyuki Otsuka, Naoya Kato, Run‐Xuan Shao, Yujin Hoshida, Hideaki Ijichi, Yukihiro Koike, Hiroyoshi Taniguchi, Masaru Moriyama, Yasushi Shiratori, Takao Kawabe, Masao Omata – 30 June 2004 – Heatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common human malignancy. Its high mortality rate is mainly a result of high intrahepatic recurrence and portal venous invasion (PVI). We previously reported that the development of PVI is related to levels of des‐gamma‐carboxy prothrombin (DCP), a serum protein that increases at a notably higher rate in patients with HCC.