M. A. Gertz, R. A. Kyle – 30 December 2003 – The purpose of this study was to assess prognostic factors and survival in patients with liver involvement in immunoglobulin light‐chain amyloidosis. Comparisons were made with other patients with immunoglobulin light‐chain amyloidosis who did not have liver involvement. A total of 77 consecutively seen patients were evaluated: 19 had hepatic amyloidosis and 58 had amyloidosis without liver involvement. Eighteen of 19 patients with liver amyloidosis could be histologically diagnosed without needle biopsy of the liver.

R. J. Anderson, H. T. Sponsel, S. E. Brown, R. Breckon, C. Ray, F. R. Simon, P. S. Guzelian – 30 December 2003 – The effect of ethanol on the ability of a denuded hepatocyte cell surface to recover is unknown. We therefore determined the effect of ethanol on the rate of renewal of mechanical wounds made in near‐confluent monolayers of primary cultures of rat hepatocytes. We found that ethanol exerted a dose‐dependent effect to impair rat hepatocyte recovery and that at least 12 hours of exposure to ethanol was required to induce this impairment.

M. J. Gaffey, J. C. Boyd, S. T. Traweek, M. A. Ali, M. Rezeig, S. H. Caldwell, J. C. Iezzoni, C. McCullough, W. C. Stevenson, S. Khuroo, N. Nezamuddin, M. B. Ishitani, T. L. Pruett – 30 December 2003 – Eighty liver allografts were studied to determine the predictive value of intraoperative biopsies and postoperative liver function tests for the development of preservation injury (PI). Peak transaminase (aspartate transaminase [AST] and alanine transaminase [ALT]) and prothrombin time (PT) values achieved by each patient during postoperative days (POD) 1 through 7 were determined.

R. Mazzanti, L. Messerini, L. Monsacchi, G. Buzzelli, A. L. Zignego, M. Foschi, M. Monti, G. Laffi, L. Morbidelli, O. Fantappié, F. Bartoloni Saint Omer, M. Ziche – 30 December 2003 – Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections lead to cirrhosis and increase the risk for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Angiogenesis is an essential step in oncogenesis and contributes to tumor progression in adult organs; however, to what extent angiogenesis occurs in the liver during chronic viral hepatitis has not been studied.

C. Lai, C. Ching, A. K. Tung, E. Li, J. Young, A. Hill, B. C. Wong, J. Dent, P. Wu – 30 December 2003 – Lamivudine is a novel 2′,3′‐dideoxy cytosine analogue that has potent inhibitory effects on hepatitis B virus replication in vitro and in vivo. We performed a single‐blind, placebo‐controlled study to assess its effectiveness and safety in Chinese hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) carriers. Forty‐two Chinese HBsAg carriers were randomized to receive placebo (6 patients) or lamivudine orally in dosages of 25 mg, 100 mg, or 300 mg daily (12 patients for each dosage).

P Lapuerta, S Rajan, M Bonacini – 30 December 2003 – We developed and evaluated neural networks as predictors of outcomes in alcoholic patients with severe liver disease using commonly available clinical and laboratory values. Hospital charts of 144 patients were reviewed. Nine variables (five laboratory, four clinical) were recorded along with in‐hospital death or survival. Data were organized into separate development and validation sets.

H Ishizu, J Uchino, N Sato, S Aoki, K Suzuki, H Kuribayashi – 30 December 2003 – Patients with alveolar echinococcosis of the liver (AEL) can be cured by complete excision of the lesions; however, it is not always completely resectable in advanced cases. Recently, benzimidazole‐type drugs have been reported to be effective in nonresectable AEL. One hundred fifty‐two patients with AEL have been surgically treated in our institution since 1937.

A M Hui, Y Kanai, M Sakamoto, H Tsuda, S Hirohashi – 30 December 2003 – p21WAF1/CIP1 is a universal cyclin‐dependent kinase (cdk) inhibitor, the expression of which is regulated by p53‐dependent and p53‐independent pathways. We examined p21WAF1/CIP1 expression in and p53 status of 21 primary hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) by reverse‐transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) and by PCR single‐strand conformation polymorphism (PCR‐SSCP) analysis. p21WAF1/CIP1 messenger RNA expression was reduced markedly in 8 of 21 HCCs (38.1%) and 5 of these 8 HCCs bore p53 mutations.

M Anthuber, S Farkas, M Rihl, M D Menger, F W Schildberg, K W Jauch, K Messmer – 30 December 2003 – Angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors have proven to be effective in the reduction of ischemia/reperfusion damage after myocardial ischemia. Whether this favorable effect can be related to other models of ischemia and reperfusion has not yet been investigated. Therefore, we studied in a model of syngeneic liver transplantation in the rat the effect of recipient enalapril treatment on postischemic liver injury. Untreated animals served as the control group.

D Prati, C Capelli, C Silvani, C De Mattei, P Bosoni, M Pappalettera, F Mozzi, M Colombo, A Zanella, G Sirchia – 30 December 2003 – To assess the incidence and source of community‐acquired hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection among subjects at low risk for blood‐borne diseases, we prospectively studied a cohort of 16,515 repeat blood donors over a mean follow‐up time of 36 months. Second‐ and third‐ generation methods were used for hepatitis C virus antibody (anti‐HCV) testing. HCV RNA was determined in the serum of anti‐HCV‐positive donors by reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction.