Robert J. Fontana, Anna S.F. Lok – 30 December 2003 – Background & Aims: Lamivudine has become a main therapeutic option for treating hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Although drug resistance develops, the clinical course after selection of antiviral‐resistant HBV mutants seems to be benign. However, we observed a severe clinical course of hepatitis B infection in several liver transplant recipients after the emergence of lamivudine resistance. This was associated with high viral load in the blood.

Hugo E. Vargas, Tomasz Laskus, Marek Radkowski, Jeff Wilkinson, Vijay Balan, David D. Douglas, M. Edwyn Harrison, David C. Mulligan, Kevin Olden, Debra Adair, Jorge Rakela – 30 December 2003 – Patients with chronic hepatitis C frequently report tiredness, easy fatigability, and depression. The aim of this study is to determine whether hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication could be found in brain tissue in patients with hepatitis C and depression. We report two patients with recurrent hepatitis C after liver transplantation who also developed severe depression.

Lydia M. Petrovic – 30 December 2003 – Background: Chronic rejection (CR) in liver allografts show a rapid onset and progressive course, leading to graft failure within the first year after transplantation. Most cases are preceded by episodes of acute cellular rejection (AR), but histological features predictive for the transition toward CR are not well documented. Method: We assessed the predictive value of centrilobular necrosis, central vein endothelialitis (CVE), central vein fibrosis, and lobular inflammation in the development of CR.

Raymund R. Razonable, Carlos V. Paya – 30 December 2003 – Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection remains a highly prevalent systemic complication following orthotopic liver transplantation (LT), accounting for a significant increase in morbidity and affiliated costs. However, unlike other immunosuppressed groups of population, CMV infection of the central nervous system in LT is rarely diagnosed, either clinically or postmortem. Furthermore, in 20% of the LT patients who develop preterminal neurological complications, the etiology remains undetermined.

Urmila Khettry, Namrata Anand, Peter N. Faul, W. David Lewis, Elizabeth A. Pomfret, James Pomposelli, Roger L. Jenkins, Fredric D. Gordon – 30 December 2003 – Although recurrent primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) after liver transplantation (LT) has been reported, the full spectrum of changes and progression to fibrosis and cirrhosis is not yet established. We performed a detailed retrospective clinicopathologic analysis of 43 patients who underwent LT for PBC.

Daisuke Morioka, Toru Kubota, Hitoshi Sekido, Kenichi Matsuo, Shuji Saito, Yasushi Ichikawa, Itaru Endo, Shinji Togo, Hiroshi Shimada – 30 December 2003 – The aim of this study was to determine whether the minimum necessary volume of a moderate fatty liver graft was similar to the normal liver volume and to elucidate means for improving the function of the transplanted fatty liver if it were inferior in volume to a normal liver under conditions of permissible cold preservation. Nine‐week‐old male Wistar rats were used.

Roberto J. Firpi, David R. Nelson, Gary L. Davis – 30 December 2003 – Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is an immunosuppressive agent that is widely used in the management of liver transplant recipients. MMF inhibits the inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase that has been shown to have in vitro antiviral properties against flaviviruses, suggesting the possibility that it might also inhibit the hepatitis C virus (HCV). The goal of this short‐term dose escalation study was to assess the antiviral effects of MMF on HCV replication.

Marion M. Aw, Nigel W. Brown, Toshi Itsuka, Christopher E. Gonde, Jemimah E. Adams, Nigel D. Heaton, J. Michael Tredger, Giorgina Mieli‐Vergani, Anil Dhawan – 30 December 2003 – The aim of this study is to study mycophenolic acid (MPA) pharmacokinetics in stable pediatric liver transplant recipients and determine which times best represent the area under the concentration versus time curve (AUC) of MPA plasma concentrations.

Patrick S. Kamath, W. Ray Kim – 30 December 2003

Fulya Gunsar, Nancy Rolando, Sabrina Pastacaldi, David Patch, Maria L. Raimondo, Brian Davidson, Keith Rolles, Andrew K. Burroughs – 30 December 2003 – Late hepatic artery thrombosis (HAT) is a rare complication after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT), conventionally described as occurring more than 30 days after surgery. Only a few reports document its course. In a consecutive series of 634 OLTs (704 grafts), 11 patients (1.7%) had late HAT, diagnosed a median of 6 months (range, 1.8 to 79 months) after OLT.