Peter R. Galle, Hans‐jürgen Schlicht, Christa Kuhn, Heinz Schaller – 1 October 1989 – Primary duck hepatocytes obtained from Pekin ducks congenitally infected with duck hepatitis B virus were used to monitor expression of viral proteins and replication of viral DNA in cell culture. Duck hepatitis B virus core antigen, duck hepatitis B virus pre‐surface antigen and duck hepatitis B virus DNA were detectable for at least 12 days after cell plating.

Marie‐Jose Ramond, Dominique Valla, Jean‐François Mosnier, Claude Degott, Jacques Bernuau, Bernard Rueff, Jean‐Pierre Benhamou – 1 October 1989 – In 27 patients who had bled from esophagogastric varices, large‐sized and/or actively bleeding gastric varices were endoscopically obturated with the tissue adhesive butyl cyanoacrylate. Active bleeding was stopped in six patients.

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