Vicente Valdivieso, Carmen Covarrubias, Freddy Siegel, Francisco Cruz – 1 January 1993 – Several recent reports have indicated an increased prevalence of gallstones in association with pregnancy. If these reports are true, the early puerperium should be a favorable time to detect the disease in its initial stages and follow its natural course. Accordingly, the gallbladder was examined by ultrasound in 980 women during the immediate postpartum period and in 150 nulliparous, age‐matched healthy volunteers.

Hirokazu Yokoyama, Hiromasa Ishii, Shigeyuki Nagata, Shinzo Kato, Kiyotaka Kamegaya, Masaharu Tsuchiya – 1 January 1993 – We produced hepatitis in guinea pigs by immunization with acetaldehyde adducts and ethanol treatment. Human hemoglobin‐acetaldehyde adducts were prepared without any reducing agents and affinity purified with polyclonal antibodies against acetaldehyde adducts. Female guinea pigs were immunized with the adducts and were simultaneously given ethanol for 40 days. These treatments induced hepatic necrosis with infiltration of mononuclear cells in the hepatic lobules.

Shian‐Yang Peng, Hey‐Chi Hsu, Po‐Lin Lai, Po‐Tah Tsung, Juan‐Shiu Chu, Po‐Huang Lee, Ding‐Shin Chen – 1 January 1993 – The messenger RNA and DNA methylation of the α‐fetoprotein gene were studied in 101 resected primary hepatocellular carcinomas, of which 93 were unicentric and 8 were multicentric. Fifty‐five were 5 cm or less in diameter (small) and 46 were more than 5 cm in diameter (large).

Elizabeth J. Smanik, Anthony S. Tavill, Gretta H. Jacobs, Irwin A. Schafer, Lou Farquhar, Fredrick L. Weber, James T. Mayes, James A. Schulak, Mary Petrelli, Gregory C. Zirzow, Katharine L. Oliver, STEPHEN P. F. Miller, Roscoe O. Brady – 1 January 1993 – Two adults were seen with cirrhosis caused by different lipid storage diseases. A 42‐yr‐old woman with Niemann‐Pick disease type B had marked hepatomegaly, ascites and recent variceal bleeding.

Fa‐Yauh Lee, Luis A. Colombato, Agustin Albillos, Roberto J. Groszmann – 1 January 1993 – In portal hypertensive states, peripheral vasodilation leads to sodium retention and plasma volume expansion. Nω‐nitro‐L‐arginine, a specific biosynthesis inhibitor of the vasodilator nitric oxide, has been shown to acutely reverse peripheral vasodilation and the vascular hyporesponsiveness to endogenous and exogenous vasoconstrictors observed in portal hypertensive rats.

Kazunori Fukuda, Masamichi Kojiro, Jen‐Fu Chiu – 1 January 1993 – We investigated transglutaminase‐induced crosslinking of cytokeratin polypeptides in liver and hepatoma cells. To overcome the difficulties in the biochemical analysis of highly cross‐linked polymers and aggregates of cytokeratins, cross‐linked cytokeratin dimers were analyzed by immunoblotting to evaluate the degree of cross‐linking of cytokeratins. Covalently cross‐linked cytokeratin dimers were not detectable in normal rat liver cells.

Gregory T. Everson – 1 January 1993

Pierre‐Alain Clavien, P. Robert C. Harvey, Juan R. Sanabria, Robert Cywes, Gary A. Levy, Steven M. Strasberg – 1 January 1993 – Leukocyte adhesion may play a central role in the pathogenesis of preservation‐reperfusion injury to liver grafts. We previously showed that lymphocyte adhesion to sinusoids is dependent on the length of cold ischemia. In the present study we examined the mechanisms of lymphocyte adherence after harvesting combined with a short and a long preservation time. The effects of lymphocyte adherence on liver function were also examined.

Tak Mao Chan, Anna Suk Fong Lok, Ignatius Kum Po Cheng, Rachel Tzun Chan – 1 January 1993 – We longitudinally studied 51 patients from two hemodialysis centers to determine the prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection in hemodialysis patients. Serum samples were tested for antibody to HCV by first‐ and second‐ generation enzyme immunoassays and for hepatitis C virus RNA by nested polymerase chain reaction assay.

Patrizia Paterlini, Françoise Driss, Bertrand Nalpas, Emilio Pisi, Dominique Franco, Pierre Berthelot, Christian Bréchot – 1 January 1993 – The role of HBV and HCV in the course of primary liver cancer in patients who are negative for HBsAg has been debated. Using a combination of serological and polymerase chain reaction assays, we investigated the association between HCV and HBV infections and primary liver cancer in 24 HBsAg‐negative patients living in France. The presence of HCV RNA and HBV DNA sequences was tested for in serum and in tumorous and nontumorous liver samples.