1 October 1989

Ashok K. Batta, Gerald Salen, Renu Arora, Sarah Shefer, G. Stephen Tint, John Abroon, David Eskreis, Seymour Katz – 1 October 1989 – We have compared the effect of ursodeoxycholic acid with placebo on the clinical state, blood liver chemistries and serum and urinary bile acids in four patients with primary biliary cirrhosis. All parameters were evaluated monthly, and bile acid composition was measured by capillary gas‐liquid chromatography.

Subrat K. Panda, Rakesh Datta, Jagjit Kaur, Arie J. Zuckerman, Nabeen C. Nayak – 1 October 1989 – An epidemic of viral hepatitis, serologically characterized as due to non‐A, non‐B hepatitis, occurred in a village of South Delhi, India, in December, 1986, through January, 1987. Water contaminated with fecal matter was the apparent source of infection. Disease‐associated virus‐like particles were detected by immune electron microscopy in the feces of three patients within 5 days of illness.

Linda Rabeneck – 1 October 1989 – Ninety‐seven patients with recent or active var‐iceal bleeding were randomly assigned to oral pro‐pranolol, endoscopic sclerotherapy plus oral pro‐pranolol, or transhepatic sclerotherapy plus oral propranolol. The effects of treatment on the number of units transfused, rebleeding of any magnitude, major rebleeding, and death were assessed in these patients, 82% of whom were alcoholic and 81% Child's Class C.

1 October 1989

Tsunehisa Kawasaki, Frederick J. Carmichael, Gwynne Giles, Victor Saldivia, Yedy Israel, Hector Orrego – 1 September 1989 – The treatment of alcoholic liver disease with propylthiouracil is based on its effect of suppressing the ethanol‐induced increase in hepatic oxygen consumption. It has been postulated that liver necrosis ensues when the increase in oxygen demand by the liver exceeds oxygen delivery to this organ. Data are now presented which show that propylthiouracil also increases portal blood flow in awake, unrestrained rats.

Charles L. H. van Berlo, Anton E. J. M. van de Bogaard, Marion A. H. van der Heijden, Hans M. H. van Eijk, Mieke A. Janssen, May C. F. Bost, Peter B. Soeters – 1 September 1989 – A variable protein‐induced toxicity has been reported in liver disease. The aim of this study was to establish the cause of increased ammonia liberation in the gut after intraluminal bleeding. Therefore, blood was sampled from catheterized piglets [20 ± 0.8 kg (means ± S.E.); n = 10] to determine ammonia, urea and amino acid levels before and 1, 2, 3 and 6 hr after a standard pig meal (750 gm, 12% protein).

Martin S. Litwin – 1 September 1989

Graham R. Flannery, Andrew K. Burroughs, Patrice Butler, Jeyananthan Chelliah, Jeremy Hamilton‐Miller, William Brumfitt, Harold Baum – 1 September 1989 – Sera from patients with primary biliary cirrhosis exhibit variable autoantibody reactivity against mitochondria, the commonest antigen (designated M2) including three structures of approximate M.W. 70, 50 and 40 kD. The nature of these antigens has only recently been established; the 70 and 50 kD are the transacetylase E2 and component X, respectively, of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex and are distinct polypeptides.

Ian R. Mackay, Merrill J. Rowley, John McD. Armstrong – 1 September 1989 – Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC)‐specific antigens were purified from beef heart mitochondria by immunoaffinity chromatography. Three major polypeptides (75, 60, and 40 kDa) were detected in the purified antigen fraction both by Coomassie blue staining and by western blot analysis.