Chen‐Kung Chou, Li‐Hsien Wang, Hsing‐Mei Lin, Chin‐Wen Chi – 1 July 1992 – Glucocorticoids have been shown to influence the severity of hepatitis B virus–related chronic hepatitis in human. However, very little is known about the effects of glucocorticoids on hepatitis B virus replication in vitro. In this report, we used a welldifferentiated human hepatoma cell line, Hep3B, transfected with hepatitis B virus complementary DNA as a model to show that a glucocorticoid analog, dexamethasone, can directly stimulate the production of HBsAg and HBeAg.

Shigetoshi Fujiyama, Shiro Iino, Koichi Odoh, Shoji Kuzuhara, Hiroaki Watanabe, Masahiko Tanaka, Kyosuke Mizuno, Tatsuo Sato – 1 June 1992 – To investigate the antibody titer necessary to prevent hepatitis A virus infection, either 15 or 7.5 mg/kg of immune serum globulin was injected into 10 antihepatitis A virus negative volunteers and their serum antihepatitis A virus titers were observed for 28 wk. In addition, antibody titers were observed for 96 wk in a phase 1 clinical trial of a hepatitis A vaccine.

Lola M. Reid, Anthony S. Fiorino, Samuel H. Sigal, Shlomo Brill, Patricia A. Holst – 1 June 1992

Jarbas R. de Oliveira, Jose Luis Rosa, Santiago Ambrosio, Ramon Bartrons – 1 June 1992 – Intraperitoneal administration of galactosamine (400 mg/kg body wt) to rats results in reversible liver cell injury that is related to a dose‐dependent depletion of uridine phosphates by formation of UDP‐sugar derivatives. This damage was monitored through changes in serum enzymatic activities that increased after the first 6 hr of drug administration. Glycemia and serum albumin remained stable during liver injury, whereas cholesterol and triglycerides decreased.

Peter R. Gibson, J. Robert E. Fraser, Tracey J. Brown, Caroline F. Finch, Penelope A. Jones, John C. Colman, Francis J. Dudley – 1 June 1992 – To define hepatic predictors of serum hyaluronan in patients with chronic liver disease, 62 patients with alcoholic liver disease were evaluated. In group 1, 30 patients had concurrent assessment of serum hyaluronan, liver function tests, Pugh grade and hemodynamic indices. A second, overlapping group of 42 patients (group 2) also had antipyrine clearance measured but without hemodynamic assessment.

Katryn N. Furuya, Patricia E. Burrows, M. James Phillips, Eve A. Roberts – 1 June 1992 – Transjugular liver biopsy is widely used in adult patients with liver disease when transthoracic needle liver biopsy is contraindicated by severe coagulopathy or ascites. It has not been used extensively in children. We report our experience with 30 consecutive transjugular liver biopsy procedures performed in 27 young patients at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Patient weights ranged from 14 to 91 kg (median = 42 kg); most patients had not yet attained adult size.

Siegfried Walker, Heinz‐Peter Kreichgauer, J. Christian Bode – 1 June 1992 – Fifty episodes of bleeding from esophageal or gastric varices in 33 patients with cirrhosis were randomized to treatment with either intravenous terlipressin (2 mg initially and 1 mg every 4 hr for 24 hr together with bolus injection and continuous infusion of placebo) or with somatostatin (250 μg as a bolus and continuous infusion of 250 μg/hr somatostatin for 24 hr and placebo injections). Standard therapy with transfusions, fluid and electrolyte correction and lactulose was administered in both groups.

Renee E. Poupon, Bertrand Nalpas, Christiane Coutelle, Benoit Fleury, Patrice Couzigou, Denise Higueret – 1 June 1992 – Two types of factors can theoretically modulate alcohol metabolism toward increased acetaldehyde production. These factors are the following: (a) individual, genetically determined isoenzymes with distinct catalytic properties, and (b) modifications of enzyme activity induced by alcohol itself or liver damage.

Fumihiro Nozu, Naoshi Takeyama, Takaya Tanaka – 1 June 1992 – Hepatic mitochondrial functions related to fatty acid metabolism, including the respiratory control ratio, fatty acid oxidative capacity and carnitine palmitoyltransferase I activity, were studied in vitro with mitochondria isolated from rats treated with thioacetamide for up to 12 wk. The levels of ketone bodies, carnitine, carnitine esters and malonyl–coenzyme A were also determined in liver extracts.

Anna S. F. Lok, Ramsey Cheung, Rachel Chan, Vincent Liu – 1 June 1992 – Sera from 103 patients were tested for hepatitis C virus RNA by nested polymerase chain reaction assay. Using primers from the highly conserved 5′untranslated region, we detected hepatitis C virus RNA in 67 (88.2%) of 76 patients positive for antibody to hepatitis C virus by both second‐generation and neutralization enzyme immunoassays. Hepatitis C virus RNA was detected in 93% of patients who had been infected for 10 yr or less and in 89% of those who had been infected for longer than 10 yr.