F. Xavier López‐Labrador, Marina Berenguer, Amparo Sempere, Martín Prieto, Rafael Sirera, Andrés González‐Molina, Vicente Ortiz, Ma Luisa Marty, Joaquín Berenguer, Miguel Gobernado – 30 January 2004 – The association between the severity of chronic hepatitis C and the variability of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome remains controversial, but to our knowledge few data are available to date regarding T‐cell epitope coding regions in transplant patients.

Hwan Young Yoo, Paul J. Thuluvath – 30 January 2004 – Poor socioeconomic status (SES) may be associated with lower survival after liver transplantation. In a previous study, we showed that African‐American race was an independent predictor of poor survival, and one of the major criticisms of our study was that we had not adjusted the survival for SES as a confounding variable.

Gary A. Levy, Edward H. Cole – 30 January 2004

Adrian Fisher, Joseph M. Seguel, Andrew N. de la Torre, Dorian Wilson, Anand Merchant, Rakesh K. Arora, Baburao Koneru – 30 January 2004 – Sirolimus is a new immunosuppressive agent that lacks the nephrotoxicity and neurotoxicity associated with calcineurin inhibitors.1–3 The addition of sirolimus to immunosuppressive protocols may thus allow sparing of calcineurin inhibitors and reduction or elimination of associated toxicities.1, 6 Between January 2000 and July 2001, sirolimus was administered to 55 of 116 consecutive liver recipients.

Antonia Dalmau, Antoni Sabaté, Maylin Koo, Carlos Bartolomé, Antoni Rafecas, Juan Figueras, Eduard Jaurrieta – 30 January 2004 – The efficacy of tranexamic acid (TA) and aprotinin (AP) in reducing blood product requirements in orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) was compared in a prospective, randomized and double‐blind study.

Josep M. Llovet, Josep Fuster, Jordi Bruix – 30 January 2004 – Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common neoplasm in the world, and the third most common cause of cancer‐related death. It affects mainly patients with cirrhosis of any etiology. Patients with cirrhosis are thus usually included in surveillance plans aiming to achieve early detection and effective treatment. Only patients who would be treated if diagnosed with HCC should undergo surveillance, which is based on ultrasonography and α‐fetoprotein every 6 months.

See‐Ching Chan, Siu‐Tim Cheung, Suet Yi Leung, Chi‐Leung Liu, Sheung‐Tat Fan, Chung‐Mau Lo – 30 January 2004 – This case report describes a patient who underwent liver transplantation for HCV cirrhosis for hepatocellular carcinoma. At 3.5 years post transplant, 6 cm tumor was found with CT scanning. With microsatellite analysis it was determined that the tumor was of donor origin. The patient underwent successful right hepatectomy of the tumor that proved to be sarcoma. The patient is doing well without recurrence 1.5 years after resection and 5 years post transplant.

Charles M. Miller, Michele Masetti, Nicola Cautero, Fabrizio DiBenedetto, Augusto Lauro, Antonio Romano, Cristiano Quintini, Antonio Siniscalchi, Bruno Begliomini, Antonio D. Pinna – 30 January 2004 – Clamping of the portal triad accomplishes complete inflow occlusion. This maneuver is commonly used during liver surgery to minimize blood loss but is not widely used in living donors undergoing resection for liver transplantation. We compared outcomes in living donors who underwent resection with and without inflow occlusion. We reviewed data on 2 nonsimultaneous living liver donor cohorts.

Manal F. Abdelmalek, Roberto J. Firpi, Consuelo Soldevila‐Pico, Alan I. Reed, Alan W. Hemming, Chen Liu, James M. Crawford, Gary L. Davis, David R. Nelson – 30 January 2004 – Recurrent hepatitis C infection is an important cause of progressive fibrosis, cirrhosis, and graft loss following orthotopic liver transplantation. Treatment for posttransplant recurrence of hepatitis C with interferon‐based therapy is difficult but results in loss of detectable virus in up to 30% of patients.

Robert J. Porte – 30 January 2004