John Michael Tredger, Nigel William Brown, Jemimah Adams, Chris Elton Gonde, Anil Dhawan, Mohamed Rela, Nigel Heaton – 22 March 2004 – Predose plasma mycophenolic acid (MPA) concentrations measured with a semi‐automated enzyme‐multiplied immunoassay were related to adverse events (e.g., rejection, leukopenia, infection), drug dose, and clinical status in 147 adult and 63 pediatric liver allograft recipients receiving adjunctive immunosuppression with mycophenolate mofetil (MMF).

Ziad Hassoun, Vijay Shah, Christine M. Lohse, V. Shane Pankratz, Lydia M. Petrovic – 22 March 2004 – Several studies have linked centrilobular necrosis (CN) to acute cellular rejection (ACR) following liver transplantation. However, it may be difficult to establish the diagnosis of ACR when the classic portal features are absent. The aim of the present study was to identify specific features that would help to recognize ACR in biopsies with CN. One hundred and forty liver biopsies with CN were identified from 97 patients who underwent liver transplantation.

Sasan Roayaie, Jonathan D. Schwartz, Max W. Sung, Sukru H. Emre, Charles M. Miller, Gabriel E. Gondolesi, Nancy R. Krieger, Myron E. Schwartz – 22 March 2004 – Very little is known about the natural history, effects of therapy, and survival after recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after liver transplantation. All adult patients undergoing liver transplant from September 19, 1988, until September 19, 2002, were reviewed. Only patients with histologically proven HCC in the explant who subsequently developed recurrence were included in further analysis.

Yasuhiko Sugawara, Masatoshi Makuuchi, Nobuhisa Akamatsu, Yoji Kishi, Takashi Niiya, Junichi Kaneko, Hiroshi Imamura, Norihiro Kokudo – 22 March 2004 – Short and direct vein anastomosis is generally performed in living donor liver transplantation using a right liver graft. The graft will regenerate, however, and might thus compress the anastomosis. We formulated a strategy for outflow reconstruction in right liver graft. When reconstruction of multiple short hepatic veins was necessary, a cryopreserved inferior vena cava graft was anastomosed with the hepatic veins of the graft in a basin.

Chung‐Mau Lo, Siu‐Tim Cheung, Irene Oi‐Lin Ng, Chi‐Leung Liu, Ching‐Lung Lai, Sheung‐Tat Fan – 22 March 2004 – Fibrosing cholestatic hepatitis (FCH) is a peculiar variant of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in immunocompromised patients characterized by rapid viral replication. Posttransplant patients receiving lamivudine for prophylaxis or treatment of HBV infection may develop drug resistance due to viral mutants, but FCH is rare because escape mutants are usually replication deficient.

Masahide Yazaki, Yasuhiko Hashikura, Yo‐ichi Takei, Toshihiko Ikegami, Shin‐ichi Miyagawa, Kanji Yamamoto, Takahiko Tokuda, Keiko Kobayashi, Takeyori Saheki, Shu‐ichi Ikeda – 22 March 2004 – More than 20 patients with adult‐onset type II citrullinemia have undergone liver transplantation, showing dramatic therapeutic effects. In Japan, living donor liver transplantation is the standard technique of liver transplantation because of the rare availability of cadaveric donors.

Raman Venkataramanan, Leslie M. Shaw – 22 March 2004

Katarína Vajdová, Stefan Heinrich, Yinghua Tian, Rolf Graf, Pierre‐Alain Clavien – 22 March 2004 – The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the protective effect of intermittent clamping and ischemic preconditioning is related to an improved hepatic microcirculation after ischemia/reperfusion injury. Male C57BL/6 mice were subjected to 75 or 120 min of hepatic ischemia and 1 or 3 hours of reperfusion.

Christine E. Staatz, Paul J. Taylor, Stephen V. Lynch, Susan E. Tett – 22 March 2004 – Although monitoring of tacrolimus blood concentrations is standard clinical practice following liver transplantation, a greater understanding of the relationship between trough concentrations and clinical outcome is required. The aim of this study was to perform a pharmacodynamic investigation of tacrolimus in pediatric liver transplant recipients. A retrospective analysis was performed on 35 pediatric liver recipients who received oral tacrolimus as the primary immunosuppressant.

Aya Miyagawa‐Hayashino, Tatsuaki Tsuruyama, Hironori Haga, Fimitaka Oike, Kim Il‐Deok, Hiroto Egawa, Hiroshi Hiai, Koichi Tanaka, Toshiaki Manabe – 22 March 2004 – Chronic rejection is an important cause of liver allograft failures. The allograft undergoing chronic rejection shows affected large‐ and medium‐sized muscular arteries with homing of foamy macrophages and enlargement of the intimal area.