Michael Charlton, Kris Ruppert, Steven H. Belle, Nathan Bass, Daniel Schafer, Russell H. Wiesner, Katherine Detre, Yuling Wei, James Everhart – 30 August 2004 – Hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐associated liver disease is the most common indication for liver transplantation (LT). There are, however, no long‐term (>5 year) studies of comparative outcomes for recipients with HCV infection, and no models capable of identifying recipients with HCV infection at greatest risk for adverse outcomes.

Laszlo Romics, Angela Dolganiuc, Karen Kodys, Yvonne Drechsler, Shilpa Oak, Arumugam Velayudham, Pranoti Mandrekar, Gyongyi Szabo – 30 August 2004 – Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) triggers cytokine production through Toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4), which shares downstream signaling pathways with TLR2. We investigated the roles of TLR2 and TLR4 in Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes)–primed, LPS‐induced liver damage using selective TLR ligands. Stock LPS induced interleukin 8 in both TLR4‐ and TLR2‐expressing human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells.

J. Ignacio Herrero, Jorge Quiroga, Bruno Sangro, Fernando Pardo, Fernando Rotellar, Javier Alvarez‐Cienfuegos, Jesus Prieto – 30 August 2004 – Herpes zoster is the consequence of the reactivation of latent varicella‐zoster infection. Immunosuppression may be a predisposing factor for herpes zoster. We have retrospectively assessed the risk of herpes zoster, the risk factors for its occurrence, and its evolution in a population of 209 consecutive liver transplant recipients. Herpes zoster developed in 25 (12%) of patients.

Norihiro Kokudo, Yasuhiko Sugawara, Junichi Kaneko, Hiroshi Imamura, Keiji Sano, Masatoshi Makuuchi – 30 August 2004 – The addition of the caudate lobe to a left liver graft is known to increase graft volume by 9% and has been shown to be useful for overcoming borderline graft‐recipient size mismatch in adult living donor liver transplantation. To assure full graft viability and regeneration, all of the feeding vessels for the caudate lobe should be preserved or reconstructed. However, more knowledge is needed about portal vein reconstruction for the caudate lobe.

Camino Valentín‐Gamazo, Massimo Malagó, Marc Karliova, Juergen T. Lutz, Andrea Frilling, Silvio Nadalin, Giuliano Testa, Stefan G. Ruehm, Yesim Erim, Andreas Paul, Hauke Lang, Guido Gerken, Christoph E. Broelsch – 30 August 2004 – Adequate selection of donors is a major prerequisite for living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). Few centers report on the entire number of potential donors considered or rejected for living donation.

David Stell, Donal Downey, Paul Marotta, Edward Solano, Anand Khakhar, Douglas Quan, Cam Ghent, Vivian McAlister, William Wall – 30 August 2004 – Doppler ultrasound (DUS) is able to measure parameters of blood flow within vessels of transplanted organs, and vascular complications are associated with abnormal values. We analyzed the findings of 51 consecutive patients who underwent DUS on 2 occasions in the first postoperative week following liver transplantation for cirrhosis to determine the range of values in patients following liver transplantation.

Michal R. Pijak, Frantisek Gazdik, Stefan Hrusovsky – 30 August 2004

Francesco Salerno, Manuela Merli, Oliviero Riggio, Massimo Cazzaniga, Valentina Valeriano, Massimo Pozzi, Antonio Nicolini, Filippo Salvatori, GIST – 30 August 2004 – The transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) has been shown to be effective in the control of refractory or recidivant ascites. However, the effect of TIPS on survival as compared with that of large‐volume paracentesis plus albumin is uncertain.

Ju‐Seog Lee, In‐Sun Chu, Jeonghoon Heo, Diego F. Calvisi, Zongtang Sun, Tania Roskams, Anne Durnez, Anthony J. Demetris, Snorri S. Thorgeirsson – 30 August 2004 – We analyzed global gene expression patterns of 91 human hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) to define the molecular characteristics of the tumors and to test the prognostic value of the expression profiles. Unsupervised classification methods revealed two distinctive subclasses of HCC that are highly associated with patient survival. This association was validated via 5 independent supervised learning methods.

Katsumi Yamauchi, Naoko Yamaguchi, Takaji Furukawa, Kazuko Takatsu, Toshimi Nakanishi, Mina Sasaki, Etsuko Isono, Katsutoshi Tokushige, Tatsuji Komatsu, Keiko Shiratori – 30 August 2004 – It has been reported that autoantibodies to hepatocytes are frequently found in patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH). To elucidate the nature of these hepatocyte‐specific autoantibodies, we attempted to generate a hepatocyte‐specific monoclonal antibody (MoAb) from Epstein‐Barr virus‐transformed peripheral blood mononuclear cells obtained from a patient with AIH.