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.

Arun J Sanyal – 25 March 2004

Manuel Romero‐Gómez, Lourdes Grande, Inés Camacho – 25 March 2004 – Oral glutamine challenge (OGC) has been found to be safe, and an altered response predicts elevated risk of overt hepatic encephalopathy (HE) in patients with minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE). We assessed the survival prognosis of patients with cirrhosis, but without current overt HE, who have an altered OGC and MHE. MHE was inferred using 3 neuropsychological tests. Venous ammonia concentrations were measured pre‐ and post‐60 minutes of a 10 g oral glutamine load.

25 March 2004

Ian P.J. Alwayn, Patrick J. Javid, Kathleen M. Gura, Vânia Nosé, Mario Ollero, Mark Puder – 25 March 2004

Yung‐Chang Chen, Pere Ginès, Jianhui Yang, Sandra N. Summer, Sandor Falk, Nash S. Russell, Robert W. Schrier – 25 March 2004 – Vascular heme oxygenase (HO) regulates vascular tone in normal conditions and in some pathologic circumstances (e.g., sepsis). However, its possible role in the pathogenesis of arterial vasodilation in cirrhosis is unknown. To address this question, the expression and activity of HO in arterial vessels was studied in rats at 1, 2, and 4 weeks after bile duct ligation (BDL) or sham operation.

Leon A. Adams, Ariel Feldstein, Keith D. Lindor, Paul Angulo – 25 March 2004 – Patients with hypopituitarism develop a phenotype similar to metabolic syndrome with central obesity and diabetes. Similarly, patients with hypothalamic damage may develop central obesity, insulin resistance, and hyperphagia. We sought to examine the clinical associations between hypopituitarism, hypothalamic dysfunction, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).