Harold O. Conn, Owen Epstein – 1 November 1989 – In ninety families with at least one proven case of Wilson's disease, seen over 32 years, all close relatives were examined and “presymptomatic” disease was diagnosed in 30.11 had one or more abnormal physical signs when examined and 7 of these had Kayser Fleischer rings. In a further 10 patients the abnormalities of copper metabolism were so pronounced as to leave no doubt as to the diagnosis.

Simon Bar‐Meir, David Chamovitz – 1 November 1989 – Sphincter of Oddi (SO) dysfunction is a recognised cause of postcholecystectomy pain, but a difficult condition to diagnose, requiring endoscopic biliary manometry (EBM) to confirm sphincter motor abnormalities. We have assessed quantitative cholescintigraphy in 19 postcholecystectomy (PC) patients with clinical and manometric evidence of SO dysfunction, 10 PC patients with non‐biliary type abdominal pain and 10 asymptomatic PC volunteers acting as controls to determine its value as a non‐invasive screening test.

Henny G. Peltenburg, Wim T. Hermens, George M. Willems, J. Guus Flendrig, Ellen Schmidt – 1 November 1989 – Pathological elevations of the plasma activities of liver enzymes are not simply related to the quantitative release of such enzymes from the liver. Several enzymatic indices, such as the well‐known de Ritis quotient, may be determined by differences in the time course of hepatic enzyme release, rather than reflecting true differences in the released quantities of various enzymes.

1 November 1989

Rita Aldini, Aldo Roda, Patrizia Simoni, Pierluigi Lenzi, Enrico Roda – 1 November 1989 – The hepatic extraction of unconjugated and taurineconjugated bile acids, provided with different hydrophilicity values, has been measured in the perfused rat liver, in order to evaluate the role of the bile acid structure and bile acid hydrophilicity on their uptake by the liver. Ursocholic, cholic, ursodeoxycholic and chenodeoxycholic acids, free and taurine‐conjugated, were injected into the portal vein in dose response studies, using a nonrecirculating perfusion system.

Tadashi Terada, Yasuni Nakanuma – 1 November 1989 – Recently, macroregenerative nodules in cirrhotic livers have been suspected to be among the putative precancerous lesions in human hepatocarcinogenesis. We examined the morphologies of 99 macroregenerative nodules in 44 cirrhotic livers with special emphasis on stainable iron. In 26 macroregenerative nodules (26%), stainable iron selectively accumulated within the macroregenerative nodules themselves, and little or no iron was found in the surrounding regenerative nodules.

Kiyoshi Yamazaki, Nicholas F. Larusso – 1 November 1989

M. Gary Brook, Peter Karayiannis, Howard C. Thomas – 1 November 1989 – Twenty‐one pretreatment variables were assessed for their significance in response prediction using data from 114 patients given α‐interferon for chronic hepatitis B virus infection.

Mogens Vyberg – 1 November 1989 – Liver needle biopsies from patients with non‐A, non‐B chronic active hepatitis and so‐called abnormal bile duct epithelium were studied with a three‐dimensional method. Photographs of bile duct structures in serial sections were transferred to acrylic plates. Five bile duct lesions of a not previously described diverticular type were revealed. The diverticuli were of varying shape with a diameter of 30 to 110 μ and a length of 75 to 150μm budding from small (12 to 25μm), slightly ectatic bile ducts. The diverticular epithelium was disordered.

James P. Nolan – 1 November 1989