José Castellote, Carmen López, Joan Gornals, Gemma Tremosa, Eva Rodríguez Fariña, Carmen Baliellas, Alicia Domingo, Xavier Xiol – 30 December 2003 – We studied the use of reagent strips for diagnosis of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) in cirrhotic patients with ascites. A reagent strip for leukocyte esterase designed for the testing of urine with a colorimetric 5‐grade scale (0 to 4) was used to evaluate ascitic fluid in 228 nonselected paracentesis performed in 128 cirrhotic patients.

Byung‐Min Choi, Hyun‐ock Pae, Young‐Myeong Kim, Hun‐Taeg Chung – 30 December 2003 – Heme oxygenase‐1 (HO‐1) is the rate‐limiting enzyme in heme catabolism, which leads to the generation of carbon monoxide (CO), biliverdin, and free iron. One of 3 mammalian HO isoforms, HO‐1, is a stress‐responsive protein and known to modulate such cellular functions as cytokine production, cell proliferation, and apoptosis to protect organs and tissues from acute injury.

Josep M. Llovet, Jordi Bruix – 30 December 2003 – There is no standard treatment for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Survival benefits derived from medical interventions are controversial. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the evidence of the impact of medical treatments on survival. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that were published as full papers assessing survival for primary treatments of HCC were included. MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, CANCERLIT, and a manual search from 1978 to May 2002 were used.

Wen‐Chau Wu, Hsiao‐Wen Chung, Hsiao‐Jen Chung – 30 December 2003

Makoto Chuma, Michiie Sakamoto, Ken Yamazaki, Tsutomu Ohta, Misao Ohki, Masahiro Asaka, Setsuo Hirohashi – 30 December 2003 – Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) associated with chronic liver disease evolves from precancerous lesions and early HCC to a progressed form. Nodule‐in‐nodule–type HCC (progressed HCC within early HCC) represents the transition from early to progressed HCC and, therefore, is useful in molecular genetic analysis of HCC progression during multistage carcinogenesis.

Yasuhiro Terazaki, Shojiro Yano, Kentaro Yuge, Satoshi Nagano, Mari Fukunaga, Z. Sheng Guo, Setsuro Komiya, Kazuo Shirouzu, Ken‐ichiro Kosai – 30 December 2003 – The most serious problem in current gene therapy is discrepancies between experimental data and actual clinical outcomes, which may be due to insufficient analyses and/or inappropriate animal models. We have explored suicide gene therapy by using various clinically relevant animal models and doubt the clinical use of maximal suicide gene expression, which has been generally recommended.

Jonathan A. Dranoff, Emma A. Kruglov, Simon C. Robson, Norbert Braun, Herbert Zimmermann, Jean Sévigny – 30 December 2003 – Extracellular nucleotides regulate diverse biological functions and are important in the regulation of liver metabolism, hepatic blood flow, and bile secretion. Ecto‐nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolases (NTPDases) hydrolyze extracellular nucleotides and are therefore potential regulators of nucleotide‐mediated signaling.

Marion G. Peters, Norah A. Terrault – 30 December 2003 – Excess alcohol consumption can worsen the course and outcome of chronic hepatitis C. It is important to distinguish between alcohol abuse, which must be treated on its own merits, and the effect of alcohol use on progression, severity, and treatment of hepatitis C. Most studies on the effects of alcohol on hepatitis C have focused on patients with high levels of daily alcohol intake.

Steven W. M. Olde Damink, Rajiv Jalan, Doris N. Redhead, Peter C. Hayes, Nicolaas E. P. Deutz, Peter B. Soeters – 30 December 2003 – Ammonia is central to the pathogenesis of hepatic encephalopathy. This study was designed to determine the quantitative dynamics of ammonia metabolism in patients with cirrhosis and previous treatment with a transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic stent shunt (TIPSS). We studied 24 patients with cirrhosis who underwent TIPSS portography.

Lihua Ming, Snorri S. Thorgeirsson, Mitchell H. Gail, Peixin Lu, Curtis C. Harris, Nengjin Wang, Yongfu Shao, Zhiyuan Wu, Guoting Liu, Xiaohong Wang, Zongtang Sun – 30 December 2003 – We assessed the separate and combined effects of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and aflatoxin in causing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in Qidong, China. A consecutive series of 181 pathologic‐diagnosed HCC cases were studied for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), anti‐HBc, HBV X gene sequence, anti‐HCV, the 249ser‐p53 mutation, and chronic hepatitis pathology.