Per Brøbech Mortensen – 1 December 1992 – The influence of lactulose on organic acid fermentation, nitrogen metabolism and excretion in the colonassociated with its mechanism of action on hepatic encephalopathy was investigated. Orally administered lactulose in increasing amounts (0 to 20 to 40 to 80 to 160 gm/day) to 12 healthy volunteers decreased ammonia production in 16.6% fecal homogenates incubated 6 hr and 24 hr at 37° C (mean ± S.E.M.:from 7 ± 1 to 0 ± 0 and from 13 ± 2 to 0 ± 0 mmol/L, respectively).

Silvia Fargion, Alberto Piperno, Maria Domenica Cappellini, Maurizio Sampietro, Anna Ludovica Fracanzani, Riccardo Romano, Rita Caldarelli, Rosaria Marcelli, Luisa Vecchi, Gemino Fiorelli – 1 December 1992 – Porphyria cutanea tarda in human beings is believed to be due to reduced hepatic uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase activity. However, extrinsic factors such as alcohol abuse and drug intake are required for clinical manifestation of the disease. In addition to typical cutaneous lesions, patients with porphyria cutanea tarda usually have chronic liver disease and moderate iron overload.

Jaime Kulisevsky, Jesús Pujol, Joaquín Balanzó, Carme Junqué, Joan Deus, Antoni Capdevilla, Cándido Villanueva – 1 December 1992 – Patients with cirrhosis show increased signal intensity in the globus pallidus on T1‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. This abnormal appearance of the basal ganglia has been related to the severity of liver failure and to the presence of portalsystemic shunting, although its cause and clinical significance remain unknown.

Shiv K. Sarin, Deepak Lahoti, Sanjay P. Saxena, Nandguri S. Murthy, Uday K. Makwana – 1 December 1992 – To determine the prevalence and natural history of gastric varices, we prospectively studied 568 patients (393 bleeders and 175 nonbleeders) with portal hypertension (cirrhosis in 301 patients, noncirrhotic portal fibrosis in 115 patients, extrahepatic portal vein obstruction in 117 patients and hepatic venous outflow obstruction in 35 patients).

Akeshi Hirano, Neil Kaplowitz, Hidekazu Tsukamoto, Seiichiro Kamimura, Jose C. Fernandez‐Checa – 1 December 1992 – Long‐term ethanol feeding has been shown to selectively reduce hepatic mitochondrial glutathione content by impairing mitochondrial uptake of this thiol. In this study, we assessed the role of this defect in evolution of alcoholic liver disease by examining the mitochondrial glutathione pool and lipid peroxidation during progression of experimental alcoholic liver disease to centrilobular liver necrosis and fibrosis.

James Underhill, Peter Donaldson, Gary Bray, Derek Doherty, Bernard Portmann, Roger Williams – 1 December 1992 – In studies to date seeking associations between human leukocyte antigens (HLA) and primary biliary cirrhosis, no class I association but several different class II associations have been described. The aims of this study were to reassess the DR associations in primary biliary cirrhosis and to examine for the first time the role of DQB.

1 December 1992

Linda Ferrell, Teresa Wright, John Lake, John Roberts, Nancy Ascher – 1 December 1992 – In Japan, the presence of a large regenerative nodule within a cirrhotic liver, referred to as a macroregenerative nodule or adenomatous hyperplasia, is thought to play a role in the pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma. These lesions, however, have received little attention outside of Japan. We examined 110 sequentially explanted cirrhotic livers for the presence of such nodules.

Shyh‐Chuan Jwo, Jen‐Hwey Chiu, Gar‐Yang Chau, Che‐Chuan Loong, Wing‐Yu Lui – 1 December 1992 – A total of 238 patients who received curative hepatic resections during the last 10 yr were observed to search for the risk factors linked to early tumor recurrence of human hepatocellular carcinoma after hepatectomy. The results revealed that tumor size, tumor appearance and DNA ploidy were the factors in predicting tumor recurrence after resection for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Tomoki Furuya, Noriko Murase, Kenjiro Nakamura, Jacky Woo, Satoru Todo, Anthony J. Demetris, Thomas E. Starzl – 1 December 1992 – The effect on liver and heart allograft survival (ACI rats to Lewis rats) was studied after three methods of recipient presensitization and after different intervals between sensitization and transplantation. With comparable lymphocytotoxic antibody titers, liver allografts always survived longer than heart grafts. The titer, class and specificity of the antibodies varied with the method of sensitization.