T. Saurebruch – 1 May 1989 – Endoscopic retrograde laser lithotripsy of common bile duct stones is a new technique which can be carried out through the endoscope without anaesthesia using ordinary endoscopic equipment. In the method described here a flashlamp pulsed Neodymium YAG laser (wave length 1064mm) was used. Light energy was transmitted along a highly flexible quartz fibre with a diameter of 0.2mm. This new technique was used in nine patients with concrements in the common bile duct, which could not be removed with the established endoscopic techniques.

John C. Marsh – 1 May 1989 – A fatal massive hepatic necrosis with widespread thrombotic occlusion of the small hepatic veins developed in two of 68 patients treated with DTIC for advanced melanoma in a randomized study. Thirteen similar reactions, in patients treated with single‐agent DTIC, are reported in the literature. Several clinical and pathologic features distinguish this DTIC toxicity from Budd‐Chiari syndrome and veno‐occlusive disease (both well‐known types of possibly drug‐related hepatic vascular disease) and make it a distinctive syndrome.

Michiko Shindo, Tadao Okuno, Ken Arai, Masayuki Matsumoto, Makoto Takeda, Tatsuro Takino, Yoshihiro Sokawa – 1 May 1989 – We measured 2′,5′‐oligoadenylate synthetase activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and serum of 14 HBsAg‐ and HBeAg‐positive patients with chronic hepatitis B with or without acute exacerbation.

Swan N. Thung, De‐Fa Wang, Thomas M. Fasy, Andrew Hood, Michael A. Gerber – 1 May 1989 – It has been postulated that polymerized human serum albumin may play a role in the infection of hepatocytes by hepatitis B virus, because both the envelope of hepatitis B virus (HBsAg) and hepatocytes exhibit binding activity for human serum albumin after cross‐linking by glutaraldehyde.

Graham F. Barnard, Sandra K. Erickson, Yasuo Nagata, Allen D. Cooper – 1 May 1989 – The suppression of cholesterol synthesis by dietary cholesterol which occurs in the livers of normal animals is absent in hepatomas. This abnormality has been reported to occur in the livers of animals fed hepatocarcinogens, even before there is any histologic evidence of malignancy (premalignant liver).

Carolin Erika Schriever, Dieter Jüngst – 1 April 1989 – Rapid aggregation of cholesterol‐phospholipid vesicles in gallbladder bile seems to be the first event in the production of cholesterol crystals, a prerequisite for cholesterol gallstone formation. We examined the amount of these vesicles in 33 human gallbladder biles in relation to biliary lipid composition and to the presence of cholesterol crystals. Biliary microscopy detected cholesterol crystals in all 19 biles from patients with cholesterol gallstones but in none of 14 biles from patients with pigment stones.

Christof Zimmermann, Peter Ferenci, Christian Pifl, Cihan Yurdaydin, Josef Ebner, Hans Lassmann, Erich Roth, Heide Hörtnagl – 1 April 1989 – An imbalance of excitatory and inhibitory amino acid‐ergic neurotransmission has been suggested to play a role in the pathogenesis of hepatic encephalopathy. For further evaluation of this hypothesis, several parameters of amino acid‐ergic neurotransmission were studied in rats with acute liver failure induced by the administration of 300 mg per kg thioacetamide by gavage on two consecutive days.

Christian D. H. Oakland, Rosemary Hickman, John Terblanche – 1 April 1989 – The aminopyrine breath test has been performed on Day 1 and Day 7 in pigs following experimental liver allografting. The results show that at 24 hr after surgery there was a significant reduction in liver function in all animals as measured by the elimination rate constant of 14CO2 in the breath. This was very profound in the group that died within 5 days (0.09 ± 0.01 hr−1) and was significantly different from the group that survived (0.16 ± 0.01 hr−1).

Hiroshi Takahashi, Mehmet Ozturk, Byron Wilson, Atsuhiko Maki, Kazue Ozawa, Mitsuru Koizumi, Keigo Endo, William Strauss, Daniel Shouval, Jack Wands – 1 April 1989 – We are investigating the antigenic changes on the cell surface of human hepatocytes that distinguish the normal from the transformed phenotype using monoclonal antibodies. In vivo expression of antigens has been directly assessed by in situ radioimmunohistology.

Teresa L. Wright – 1 April 1989 – We present evidence that normal hepatocytes can be specifically protected from galactosamine toxicity in vitro by targeting an antagonist to these cells via receptor‐mediated endocytosis.