Kittichai Promrat, Glen Lutchman, Gabriel I. Uwaifo, Renee J. Freedman, Alejandro Soza, Theo Heller, Edward Doo, Marc Ghany, Ahalya Premkumar, Yoon Park, T. Jake Liang, Jack A. Yanovski, David E. Kleiner, Jay H. Hoofnagle – 5 January 2004 – Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a common chronic liver disease for which there is no known effective therapy. A proportion of patients with NASH progress to advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis. NASH is considered one of the clinical features of the metabolic syndrome in which insulin resistance plays a central role.

Dominique Roulot, Claude Degott, Olivier Chazouillères, Frédéric Oberti, Paul Calès, Nicolas Carbonell, Said Benferhat, Solange Bresson‐Hadni, Dominique Valla – 5 January 2004 – Unexplained liver test abnormalities are frequent in patients with Turner's syndrome. This cohort study was performed to clarify the histopathologic features, causes, and long‐term outcome of liver involvement in these patients. Thirty patients with persistently abnormal liver test results were followed‐up for 8.8 ± 5.2 years. Liver specimens were available in 27 patients.

Junichi Shoda, Tetsuo Miura, Hirotoshi Utsunomiya, Koji Oda, Masahiro Yamamoto, Masahito Kano, Tadashi Ikegami, Naomi Tanaka, Hidetaka Akita, Kousei Ito, Hiroshi Suzuki, Yuichi Sugiyama – 5 January 2004 – Inchin‐ko‐to (ICKT), an herbal medicine, and its ingredients exert potent choleretic effects by a “bile acid‐independent” mechanism. The current study was designed to determine whether ICKT or its ingredients potentiate multidrug resistance‐associated protein 2 (Mrp2; Abcc2)‐mediated choleresis in vivo.

Adrian Reuben – 5 January 2004

Jong‐Hyun Kim, Kyung‐Ran You, In Hee Kim, Baik‐Hwan Cho, Chan‐Young Kim, Dae‐Ghon Kim – 5 January 2004 – Using messenger RNA (mRNA) differential display, we identified a single complementary DNA (cDNA) fragment (HG23T1) that was over‐expressed in a hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) specimen. We cloned the full‐length HG23T1 gene by the rapid amplification of cDNA end (RACE) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. It perfectly matched the gene encoding human ribosomal protein L36a (RPL36A also referred to as RPL44).

Maria Antonietta Casiraghi, Massimo De Paschale, Luisa Romanò, Renato Biffi, Agnese Assi, Giorgio Binelli, Alessandro Remo Zanetti – 5 January 2004 – Long‐term follow up studies of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection rarely exceed 20–25 yr. We studied the outcome of HCV infection in 35‐yr‐old adults infected at birth (1968) through mini transfusions of blood. A retrospective‐prospective study was carried out. The cohort included 31 individuals who were given mini blood transfusions (21–30 ml) collected from a donor subsequently revealed to be HCV infected.

Huey‐Ling Chen, Chee‐Jen Chang, Man‐Shan Kong, Fu‐Chen Huang, Hung‐Chang Lee, Chieh‐Chung Lin, Ching‐Chuan Liu, I‐Hsien Lee, Tzee‐Chung Wu, Shu‐Fen Wu, Yen‐Hsuan Ni, Hong‐Yuan Hsu, Ding‐Shinn Chen, Mei‐Hwei Chang – 5 January 2004 – To investigate the role of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in pediatric fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) after the launch of universal HBV vaccination, the authors analyzed the data from patients with FHF collected from a nationwide collaborative study group.

Hyam L. Leffert, Stewart Sell – 5 January 2004

Gennaro D'Amico, Alberto Morabito – 5 January 2004

Olav Dalgard, Atle Egeland, Kjell Skaug, Kostas Vilimas, Tore Steen – 5 January 2004 – This study assessed the effect of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection on the health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) of injecting drug users, comparing the HRQOL of injecting drug users with and without chronic HCV infection. The study included 199 injecting drug users of more than 18 years of age who participated in a needle exchange program. Blood samples were tested for the presence of HCV RNA in serum with a polymerase chain reaction method.