Maureen M. J. Guichelaar, Michael Malinchoc, Jean Sibonga, Bart L. Clarke, J. Eileen Hay – 20 April 2004 – Bone loss occurs early after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) in all liver transplant recipients and leads to postoperative fractures, especially in cholestatic patients with the lowest bone mass. Little is known about the underlying changes in bone metabolism after OLT or about the etiology of these changes.

Barbara Rosado, Gregory J. Gores – 20 April 2004 – Metastases from neuroendocrine tumors (NET) of the gastrointestinal tract, carcinoids, and endocrine pancreatic tumors (EPT) can be limited to the liver for long periods and may have slow growth. The symptoms are often related to hormone overproduction, and debulking surgery—for example, liver resection—is recommended to achieve tumor remission or symptom palliation. If liver resection is not feasible, hepatectomy and orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) have been proposed.

Marco Bassanello, Elio Franco De Palo, Federica Lancerin, Alessandro Vitale, Rosalba Gatti, Umberto Montin, Francesco Antonio Ciarleglio, Marco Senzolo, Patrizia Burra, Alberto Brolese, Giacomo Zanus, Davide Francesco D'Amico, Umberto Cillo – 20 April 2004 – Many studies on cirrhotic patients have shown that insulin‐like growth factor 1 (IGF‐1) plasma levels are related to the severity of liver dysfunction. This result suggests that IGF‐1 is probably useful for monitoring liver function in the perioperative course of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT).

Giovan Giuseppe Di Costanzo, Francesco Paolo Picciotto, Giuseppina Marino Marsilia, Antonio Ascione – 20 April 2004 – Liver transplantation is one of the main therapeutic options for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) occurring in cirrhotic patients; an accurate diagnosis and staging of this cancer is crucial to selecting the candidates for this treatment. Although the best diagnostic strategy is debated, the guidelines proposed by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) are used by many centers.

Victor I. Machicao, Murli Krishna, Hugo Bonatti, Bashar A. Aqel, Justin H. Nguyen, Stephen D. Weigand, Barry G. Rosser, Christopher Hughes, Rolland C. Dickson – 20 April 2004 – The natural history of allograft steatosis in hepatitis C (HCV)‐infected patients after liver transplantation (LT) is poorly understood. The aim of our study was to determine the relationship of allograft steatosis to HCV recurrence after LT. All patients undergoing LT at our center from March 1998 to December 2001 were included in the study.

David H. Van Thiel, Sherri Yong, S. David Li, Marc Kennedy, John Brems – 20 April 2004 – Chronic end stage liver disease is the most frequent indication for liver transplantation. Individuals with end stage cirrhosis, and therefore individuals on liver transplant lists, are at increased risk of developing a hepatic cancer.

Michael D. Voigt, Bridget Zimmerman, Daniel A. Katz, Stephen C. Rayhill – 20 April 2004 – Experienced transplant professionals may predict mortality better, in highly selected cirrhotic patients referred for accelerated listing to regional review boards, than the (Pediatric) Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease score. However, these requests are often denied. We wished to establish if (1) such denials increase mortality and (2) referring physicians predict mortality better than the score.

Valeria R. Mas, Daniel G. Maluf, Richard Stravitz, Catherine I. Dumur, Bradly Clark, Cheryl Rodgers, Andrea Ferreira‐Gonzalez, Robert A. Fisher – 20 April 2004 – Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer death in the world. The present study aimed to investigate the genes involved in viral carcinogenesis and tumor progression in liver transplant recipients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HCC.

Guy W. Neff, Christopher B. O'Brien, Robert Cirocco, Marzia Montalbano, Maria de Medina, Phillip Ruiz, Amr S. Khaled, Pablo A. Bejarano, Kamran Safdar, Mary A. Hill, Andreas G. Tzakis, Eugene R. Schiff – 20 April 2004 – The optimal duration of therapy for pegylated interferon combined with ribavirin in recurrent Hepatitis C virus (HCV) following liver transplantation is not known.

Federico Villamil, Stephen Pollard – 20 April 2004 – Adjusting cyclosporine (CsA) dose based on blood concentration at 2 hours after dose (C2) has been shown in prospective clinical trials to reduce the risk of rejection compared with conventional trough monitoring. In addition, it provides equivalent efficacy to tacrolimus in liver transplant patients, with a favorable safety profile. Target C2 should be defined on an individual basis depending on adjunctive therapy and the level of exposure required.