1 July 1996

Rifaat Safadi, Daniel Shouval, Ran Tur Kaspa, Yaffa Ashur, Yaron Ilan – 1 July 1996 – Mixed cryoglobulinemia is a well‐known complication after hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. We report five cases in which cryoglobulinemia appeared or grossly exacerbated following orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Cryoglobulinemia and the associated clinical symptoms resolved or improved in two patients treated with ribavirin after liver transplantation, while plasmapheresis was ineffective in another patient.

S Suzuki, S Nakamura, A Serizawa, T Sakaguchi, H Konno, H Muro, I Kosugi, S Baba – 1 July 1996 – The hypothesis that both activated Kupffer cells and the spleen may be responsible for endotoxin‐induced liver injury following partial hepatectomy was investigated.

K Maezono, K Kajiwara, K Mawatari, A Shinkai, K Torii, T Maki – 1 July 1996 – The liver is the main organ involved in amino acid metabolism, and it utilizes glucogenic amino acids as substrates for glucose or adenosine triphosphate (ATP), but this process is impaired in clinical and experimental liver diseases. In this study, we administered high doses of amino acids in rats or cultured hepatocytes with experimental models of liver injury to examine whether such supplementation could attenuate liver damage.

K F Petersen, A B West, A Reuben, D L Rothman, G I Shulman – 1 July 1996 – Hepatic lipid content was assessed noninvasively in 15 patients with hepatic steatosis by 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and compared in a double‐blind fashion with histological grading and morphometric quantitation of fat in liver biopsies taken within 2 weeks of the study. The lipid content in the liver biopsies was expressed as the volume fraction of total parenchyma occupied by fat.

J H Hoofnagle, M Lombardero, R K Zetterman, J Lake, M Porayko, J Everhart, S H Belle, K M Detre – 1 July 1996 – To evaluate the effect of donor age on graft and patient outcome after liver transplantation an analysis of a large‐scale cohort study was performed at three tertiary referral liver transplant centers. Between April 1990 and June 1994, 772 adults underwent an initial single‐organ liver transplantation. The age of the donors averaged 35 years;193 (25%) were 50 or above, the age used to define “older” donors. Groups were compared for demographic, clinical, and biochemical features.

C Chen, L Wang, S Lu, M Wu, S You, Y Zhang, L Wang, R M Santella – 1 July 1996 – To elucidate the importance of aflatoxin in the etiology of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a community‐based cohort study combined with molecular dosimetry of aflatoxin exposure was performed in the Penghu Islets where the HCC mortality rate is highest in Taiwan. A total of 6,487 residents aged 30 to 65 years were recruited in the two‐ stage screening survey and underwent regular follow‐up examination.

H Bozkaya, B Ayola, A S F Lok – 1 July 1996 – Cross‐sectional studies reported that hepatitis B core gene mutations are associated with active liver disease and responsiveness to interferon therapy. In view of the heterogeneity in published sequences, it is not possible to tell whether the differences in sequences observed were true mutations that developed during the course of infection.

David J. Plevak – 1 July 1996

Elizabeth M. Brunt, Beverly B. Kraemer – 1 July 1996 – DNA ploidy analysis of 22 lesions arising from the intrahepatic and extrahepatic biliary systems and gallbladder was performed on Feulgen‐stained 5‐μm sections from archival paraffin‐embedded tissue on an image analyzer (CAS‐200). The cases included intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (n = 6), extrahepatic bile duct carcinoma (n = 5), carcinoma of the gallbladder (n = 11), and appropriate controls. All malignancies were stage III and IV adenocarcinomas with the exception of 1 stage II moderately differentiated gallbladder adenocarcinoma.