Michael Torbenson, Rajesh Kannangai, Jacquie Astemborski, Steffanie A. Strathdee, David Vlahov, David L. Thomas – 5 January 2004 – Occult hepatitis B is defined by the presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in a serum or liver in the absence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). The prevalence and clinical correlates of occult hepatitis B remain incompletely defined. A cross‐sectional study was performed to determine the prevalence of occult hepatitis B in a high‐risk cohort composed of 188 injection drug users in Baltimore, Maryland.

Gregory D. Kirk, Olufunmilayo A. Lesi, Maimuna Mendy, Aliu O. Akano, Omar Sam, James J. Goedert, Pierre Hainaut, Andrew J. Hall, Hilton Whittle, Ruggero Montesano – 5 January 2004 – Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common cancer in The Gambia. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is endemic, with 15% to 20% of the population being chronic carriers, whereas hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence is low. We recruited 216 incident cases of HCC and 408 controls from three sites.

Alessia Ciancio, Antonina Smedile, Mario Rizzetto, Marco Lagget, John Gerin, Brent Korba – 5 January 2004 – Numerous studies have shown that resistance to long‐term lamivudine therapy occurs in as many as ⅔ of hepatitis B virus (HBV) chronic carriers. Additional studies have shown that reversion of HBV mutations in the precore/core promoter region conferring an HBeAg‐negative phenotype/genotype can occur in up to 30% of lamivudine‐treated patients.

François Penin, Jean Dubuisson, Felix A. Rey, Darius Moradpour, Jean‐Michel Pawlotsky – 5 January 2004 – Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes acute and chronic liver disease in humans, including chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Studies of this virus have been hampered by the lack of a productive cell culture system; most information thus has been obtained from analysis of the HCV genome, heterologous expression systems, in vitro and in vivo models, and structural analyses.

Elisabetta Bugianesi, Paola Manzini, Sergio D'Antico, Ester Vanni, Filomena Longo, Nicola Leone, Paola Massarenti, Antonio Piga, Giulio Marchesini, Mario Rizzetto – 5 January 2004 – The mechanism(s) determining the progression from fatty liver to steatohepatitis is currently unknown. Our goal was to define the relative impact of iron overload, genetic mutations of HFE, and insulin resistance on the severity of liver fibrosis in a population of subjects with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) who had low prevalence of obesity and no overt symptoms of diabetes.

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).