Ke‐Qin Hu, Chang‐Hong Yu, John M. Vierling – 1 August 1993 – Although detection of hepatitis C virus RNA with polymerase chain reaction has become the standard for diagnosis, extensive application has been thwarted by polymerase chain reaction's labor intensiveness, risk of false‐positive results through contamination and time required for individual assays. To minimize these limitations, we developed and validated a one‐step hepatitis C virus RNA polymerase chain reaction assay.

John Polio, Cornel C. Sieber, Emanuel Lerne, Roberto J. Groszmann – 1 July 1993 – Most studies testing vasoactive agents in portalhypertensive rats have been performed in young animals. To assess age‐related changes in hemodynamic responses to adrenergic stimuli, we examined (a) responsiveness to norepinephrine (0.14 to 12.0 μg ˙ kg−1 ˙ min−1) in young (3‐mo‐old) and aged (9‐mo‐old) sham‐operated and portal‐hypertensive rats and (b) response to propranolol (2 and 10 mg ˙ kg−1 body wt), nitroglycerin (3.6 mg ˙ kg−1 ˙ min−1) or saline solution in aged portal‐hypertensive rats.

Ka‐Sic Ho, Bret A. Lashner, Jean C. Emond, Alfred L. Baker – 1 July 1993 – Prior variceal bleeding may adversely affect the prognosis of orthotopic liver transplantation. We studied this question by evaluating all 175 adult patients undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation at our institution to determine risk factors associated with mortality after transplantation. Seventy patients demonstrated prior variceal bleeding, and of those, 32 had a course of sclerotherapy. Thirteen also had portal systemic shunts.

Tadashi Iwao, Atsushi Toyonaga, Motoki Ikegami, Kazuhiko Oho, Michihiro Sumino, Hiroshi Harada, Munenori Sakaki, Hiroyuki Shigemori, Toshichika Aoki, Kyuichi Tanikawa – 1 July 1993 – Although congestive gastric mucosal circulation has been suggested in patients with portal‐hypertensive gastropathy, whether it is due to “active” (overflow) or “passive” (stasis) congestion is not known. To answer this question, we assessed regional gastric mucosal blood flow with laser Doppler flowmetry in 57 patients with portal hypertension and 30 controls.

1 July 1993

Florence Lacaille, Khazal Paradis – 1 July 1993 – Ursodeoxycholic acid is an efficient treatment for putatively immune‐mediated liver diseases, but its mechanism of action is unknown. We studied human mononuclear cell proliferation as an in vitro model for cell‐mediated immunity in the presence of ursodeoxycholic acid, its glycoconjugate and tauroconjugate and chenodeoxycholic acid at concentrations of 5, 25 and 50 μmol/L.

Jen‐Hwey Chiu, Li‐Hwa Wu, Hwa‐Li Kao, Hwey‐May Chang, Shyh‐Haw Tsay, Che‐Chuan Loong, Gar‐Yang Cha, Wing‐Yu Lui – 1 July 1993 – To test the hypothesis that increased proliferative capacity of cells in a liver remnant is a risk factor for tumor recurrence in patients who have undergone liver resection for hepatocellular carcinoma, DNA flow‐cytometric measurement and cell‐cycle analysis of the nontumor parts of resected hepatocellular carcinomas (tumor size <5 cm) were performed. The disease‐free survival rates 1, 2, 3 and 4 yr after surgery were 64%, 58%, 43%, and 36%, respectively.

Christine Silvain, Stéphane Carpentier, Denis Sautereau, Bella Czernichow, Jean‐michel Métreau, Eric Fort, Pierre Ingrand, Jean Boyer, Bernard Pillegand, Michel Doffël, Daniel Dhumeaux, Michel Beauchan – 1 July 1993 – We undertook a multicenter randomized trial to compare the efficacy of terlipressin combined with transdermal nitroglycerin and that of octreotide in the emergency control of acute variceal hemorrhage in cirrhosis.

Nick Sheron, George Bird, John Koskinas, Bernard Portmann, Miroslav Ceska, Ivan Lindley, Roger William – 1 July 1993 – Acute alcoholic hepatitis is characterized by a unique degree of liver neutrophil infiltration, often accompanied by marked peripheral neutrophilia in the absence of demonstrable bacterial or fungal infection. In this study we assayed plasma and tissue levels of a potent neutrophil activator and chemotaxin, interleukin‐8, in patients with a spectrum of alcoholic liver diseases and in normal and diseased control subjects.

Katsuaki Tanaka, Konomi Mitsui, Manabu Morimoto, Kazushi Numata, Shuji Inoue, Yutaro Takamur, Makoto Masumura – 1 July 1993 – To evaluate the effect of acute viral hepatitis on hepatic arterial blood flow, we performed color Doppler sonography with point‐spectral analysis in 15 patients with acute viral hepatitis and compared the results with those in 15 normal volunteers. During the acute phase of hepatitis, the peak‐systolic and enddiastolic velocity of the hepatic artery were significantly larger than those in normal arteries (p <0.01).