Pietro Amoroso, Salvatore Buonocore, Gennaro Lettieri, Paola Pierri, Alfonso Mele – 30 January 2004

Anurag Maheshwari, Rajnish Mishra, Paul J. Thuluvath – 30 January 2004 – Anemia is common after liver transplantation, with the incidence ranging from 4.3% to 28.2% depending on the criteria used to define anemia. The cause of anemia is unidentified in the majority of patients, and it is likely to be multifactorial. Immunosuppressive‐medication‐induced bone marrow suppression is perhaps the most common cause of unexplained anemia. Chronic blood loss, iron deficiency, hemolysis, and renal insufficiency are other potential causes of chronic anemia.

Masatoshi Makuuchi, Keiji Sano – 30 January 2004 – Due to the prevalence of hepatitis virus infection, the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is very high in Japan. Many techniques have been devised by Japanese surgeons to reduce the mortality rate after hepatectomy for HCC: preoperative precise evaluation of hepatic functional reserve, portal venous embolization as preoperative preparation, anatomical and nonanatomical limited resections using intraoperative ultrasonography, and intermittent inflow occlusion during liver transection.

Massimo Roncalli – 30 January 2004 – The spectrum of so‐called space‐occupying small (0.5–2.5 cm) sizable nodules arising in the cirrhotic liver includes a series of hyperplastic (large regenerative), dysplastic (low‐ and high‐grade dysplastic), and malignant hepatocellular (well‐differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma, HCC) nodules. Major progress in their classification and understanding was achieved through image analysis techniques and careful histological dissection of explanted native livers.

Aránzazu Sánchez, Valentina M. Factor, Insa S. Schroeder, Peter Nagy, Snorri S. Thorgeirsson – 30 January 2004 – Proliferation and differentiation of hepatic stem cell progenies (i.e., oval cells) sustain liver regeneration when the replicative and functional capacity of hepatocytes is impaired. The signaling pathways that control stem cell activation remain poorly understood.

Brian J. McMahon, Thomas W. Hennessy, Carol Christensen, Dana Bruden, Daniel G. Sullivan, Chriss Homan, Heike Deubner, Michael G. Bruce, Stephen Livingston, James Williams, David R. Gretch – 30 January 2004 – Large cohorts of persons infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) that include patients with multiple risk exposures and behaviors have been rarely reported. We herein describe a population‐based cohort of 759 Alaska Natives (AN) with HCV who were recruited into a long‐term follow‐up study. History of injection drug use (IDU) was reported by 60.1% and blood transfusion by 14.0%.

Sirenda Vong, Beth P. Bell – 30 January 2004 – In 1998, chronic liver disease (CLD) was the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S. Alcohol and hepatitis C are thought to be important etiologies. However, traditional methods for calculating CLD mortality rates from death certificates may underestimate hepatitis C‐related CLD mortality. We studied patterns of CLD deaths reported from 1990 through 1998, using an expanded definition that included death certificates where CLD, viral hepatitis, or CLD‐related sequelae were reported as the underlying cause.

Jörn M. Schattenberg, Yongjun Wang, Raina M. Rigoli, Dennis R. Koop, Mark J. Czaja – 30 January 2004 – Chronic oxidative stress induced by overexpression of the cytochrome P450 isoform 2E1 (CYP2E1) has been implicated in hepatocyte injury and death. However, the mechanism by which CYP2E1 overexpression may promote cell death is unknown. Acute oxidative stress activates mitogen‐activated protein kinases (MAPK), suggesting that chronic oxidant generation by CYP2E1 may regulate cellular responses through these signaling pathways.

Calogero Cammà, Danilo Di Bona, Filippo Schepis, E. Jenny Heathcote, Stefan Zeuzem, Paul J. Pockros, Patrick Marcellin, Luis Balart, Alfredo Alberti, Antonio Craxì – 30 January 2004 – Multicenter randomized trials have shown that once‐weekly pegylated interferon (peginterferon) alfa‐2a is more efficacious than conventional interferon alfa‐2a (IFN) in patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Guido Torzilli, Jacques Belghiti, Masatoshi Makuuchi – 30 January 2004