The differentiation of cholesterol and pigment gallstones

Dieter Jüngst – 1 October 1989 – Gallbladder biles and stones were obtained at 116 cholecystectomies for symptomatic gallstone disease. All 33 patients younger than 50 years had cholesterol stones, whereas 40% of the older patients had pigment stones. We compared the reliability of three different bile tests for the differentiation between cholesterol and pigment stone patients.

Hepatic denervation alters hemodynamic response to hemorrhage in conscious rats

Yves Ozier, Alain Braillon, Christophe Gaudin, Dominique Roulot, Antoine Hadengue, Didier Lebrec – 1 October 1989 – We investigated the effect of liver denervation on cardiovascular homeostasis. Three days after surgical denervation of the liver, hemodynamic studies (radioactive microsphere method) were conducted in conscious rats. The efficacity of the liver denervation procedure was confirmed by a significant decrease in norepinephrine content in various lobes of the liver. Liver denervation did not affect either systemic or splanchnic resting hemodynamics.

Spiders and capillaries

Sheila Sherlock – 1 September 1989 – Nailfold capillary microscopical and hormonal investigations were carried out in 25 patients with cirrhosis of the liver and in 20 age‐ and sex‐matched controls. Several structural and functional capillary microscopical parameters were significantly different between the group of cirrhotics as a whole and the controls; no capillaroscopic feature helped to distinguish cirrhotics with spiders from those without.

A simple animal model of hyperammonemia

Inmaculada Azorín, María‐Dolores Miñana, Vicente Felipo, Santiago Grisolía – 1 September 1989 – Rats were fed a standard diet or the standard diet supplemented with ammonium acetate (20% w/w) for up to 100 days. The effect of the ingestion of the high‐ammonium diet on some aspects of nitrogen metabolism in rats was studied. Ammonia levels in blood increased ≈3‐fold; in brain, liver and muscle the increases were 36, 34 and 50%, respectively. Urea levels in blood and urea excretion increased ≈2‐fold. There was no increase of carbamyl phosphate synthase.

Hemodynamic and metabolic responses to leukotriene C4 in isolated perfused rat liver

Herbert Krell, Eberhard Dietze – 1 September 1989 – Responses of isolated perfused rat liver to leukotriene C4 were studied in order to assess the mechanisms involved in leukotriene‐mediated liver injury. Infusion of leukotriene C4 (11 and 44 pmoles per min per gm liver weight) into the portal vein resulted in a rise in portal pressure, a decrease in oxygen consumption, an increase in hepatic glucose and lactate efflux and lactate/pyruvate ratio in the perfusate and a small decrease in bile flow.

Reperfusion injury to endothelial cells following cold ischemic storage of rat livers

Jane C. Caldwell‐Kenkel, Robert T. Currin, Yukio Tanaka, Ronald G. Thurman, John J. Lemasters – 1 September 1989 – Storage of donor livers in Euro‐Collins solution for human transplantation surgery is limited to about 8 hr. Here, tissue damage to isolated rat livers stored under the same conditions as human livers was characterized following reperfusion.

β‐Blockade with propranolol and hepatic artery blood flow in patients with cirrhosis

Ricardo Mastai, Jaime Bosch, Jordi Bruix, Miguel Navasa, David Kravetz, Juan Rodés – 1 September 1989 – In patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension, propranolol administration reduces heart rate and cardiac output and diminishes portal pressure and collateral eral blood flow. However, there is little information on the possible effects of propranolol on hepatic artery blood flow. The present study addressed this question in 12 cirrhotic patients with end‐to‐side portacaval shunt, in whom all of the liver blood flow represents the hepatic artery blood flow.

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