Byung Ihn Choi – 30 January 2004 – Early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is important, since the most effective treatment for HCC is surgical resection or local ablation therapy when the tumor is small. Fortunately, recent advances in liver imaging techniques have facilitated the detection of small HCCs.

Lorenzo Capussotti, Andrea Muratore, Paolo Massucco, Alessandro Ferrero, Roberto Polastri, Hedayat Bouzari – 30 January 2004 – Since the lack of donors, liver resections continue to be the treatment of choice for cirrhotic patients with good liver function and resectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Moreover, over the past 2 decades, an increasing number of major hepatic resections have been performed.

Guido Torzilli, Natale Olivari, Eliana Moroni, Daniele Del Fabbro, Andrea Gambetti, Piera Leoni, Marco Montorsi, Masatoshi Makuuchi – 30 January 2004 – Intraoperative ultrasonography (IOUS) is the most accurate diagnostic technique for staging hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but has low accuracy in differentiating the new nodules detected in the cirrhotic liver. The aim of this preliminary report is to evaluate whether contrast‐enhanced intraoperative ultrasonography (CE‐IOUS) could provide additional information to IOUS in patients with HCC.

Chloe C. McAlister, Zu‐hua Gao, Vivian C. McAlister, Rekha Gupta, James R. Wright, Allan S. MacDonald, Kevork Peltekian – 30 January 2004 – The mechanism by which a liver transplantation might protect a simultaneous kidney transplant in a crossmatch‐positive recipient is unknown. Flow cytometry crossmatch (FCXM) has increased the sensitivity of donor‐specific antibody (DSA) detection compared with complement‐dependant cytotoxicity (CDC).

Pietro Vajro, Claudia Mandato, Adriana Franzese, Stefania Lucariello – 30 January 2004

Masashi Yoneda, Takenao Hasegawa, Kimihide Nakamura, Masasya Tamano, Toru Kono, Akira Terano – 30 January 2004

Debbie L. Shawcross, Nathan A. Davies, Rajeshwar P. Mookerjee, Peter C. Hayes, Roger Williams, Alistair Lee, Rajiv Jalan – 30 January 2004 – There is increasing evidence that terlipressin is useful in patients with cirrhosis and hepatorenal syndrome, but there are no data of its use in patients with acute liver failure (ALF) in whom hepatorenal syndrome is common. Although terlipressin produces systemic vasoconstriction, it produces cerebral vasodilatation and may increase cerebral blood flow (CBF). Increased CBF contributes to intracranial hypertension in patients with ALF.

Evelyn Zeindl‐Eberhart, Sibylle Haraida, Sibylle Liebmann, Peter Roman Jungblut, Stephanie Lamer, Doris Mayer, Gundula Jäger, Stephen Chung, Hartmut Manfred Rabes – 30 January 2004 – The proteomic approach is a valuable tool to detect and identify proteins that are associated with cancer. In previous investigations on experimentally induced rat hepatomas, we detected aldose reductase‐like protein (ARLP) as a highly significant marker protein. Our present study was intended to look for the presence of similar tumor‐associated marker proteins on human hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC).

Neil Kaplowitz – 30 January 2004

Jordi Bruix, Josep M. Llovet – 30 January 2004