Luigi Bolondi, Stefano Gaiani, Alighieri Mazziotti, Paolo Casanova, Antonino Cavallari, Giuseppe Gozzetti, Luigi Barbara – 1 May 1988 – We investigated a group of patients who underwent distal splenorenal shunt using high‐resolution real‐time equipment and a duplex scanner with the aims: (i) to evaluate the rate of visualization of shunt; (ii) to assess change in size in the portal vein, and (iii) to characterize the flow pattern in the splenic vein and to study flow direction and velocity in the portal vein, thus adding new data on the efficacy of this operation in maintaining hepatic perf

Estela Monteiro, M. Patricia Alves, M. Livia Santos, Isabel Quintas, Amelia Baptista, Alberto Galvao‐Teles, Judith S. Gavaler – 1 May 1988 – The distribution of six HLA antigens in a population of 88 Portuguese chronic alcohol abusers with biopsy‐proven liver disease was compared to that in 66 Portuguese normal controls.

Reidar Albrechtsen, Ulla M. Wewer, Snorri S. Thorgeirsson – 1 May 1988 – De novo formation of laminin‐positive basement membranes was found to be a distinct morphologic feature of diethylnitrosamine/phenobarbital‐induced hepatocellular carcinomas of the rat. The first appearance of extracellularly located laminin occurred in the pre‐neoplastic liver lesions (corresponding to neoplastic nodules), and this feature became successively more prominent during the course of hepatocellular carcinoma development.

Minoru Sukigara, Masahiko Ohata, Toshiro Komazaki, Ryozo Omoto – 1 May 1988 – The effect of spontaneous respiration on esophageal variceal flow was evaluated using 5 MHz color flow Doppler echography. Twenty‐one patients with esophageal varices, of whom 19 had liver cirrhosis (95%), were examined with a convex array transesophageal transducer. The direction and velocity of the variceal flow during inhalation and exhalation could be inferred from the color, its brightness or the Doppler time‐velocity spectrum.

J. Donald Ostrow – 1 May 1988

Fenton Schaffner – 1 May 1988 – One hundred and fifty‐four patients with histologically verified non‐alcoholic chronic liver disease were randomized to azathioprine or prednisone treatment. After a median of 91 months observation time, the cause of death was assessed retrospectively. Autopsy was performed in 82% of 71 deaths. In the azathioprine group 33% (13/39) died from malignant neoplasia, and in the prednisone group (13%) (4/32) (p = 0.08).

Russell H. Wiesner, Patricia M. Grambsch, Keith D. Lindor, Jurgen Ludwig, E. Rolland Dickson – 1 May 1988 – Primary biliary cirrhosis is a chronic, progressive, cholestatic liver disease thought to be related to abnormalities in immune regulation. The disease is associated with granulomatous bile duct destruction, cholestasis, hepatic copper overloading and the development of hepatic fibrosis or cirrhosis or both. There have been numerous therapeutic trials evaluating immunosuppres‐sive, antifibrotic and cupruretic agents.

I. Michael Samloff – 1 May 1988 – To characterize bleeding from gastric red spots in patients with cirrhosis, three groups of patients were studied: (a) 11 cirrhotic patients bleeding from gastric red spots, (b) 18 nonbleeding cirrhotic patients without gastric red spots, and (c) 13 non‐cirrhotic patients with endoscopic normal mucosa (controls). Histologic examination of antral biopsy specimens revealed a diffuse capillary ectasia without inflammation in 8 of the 11 cirrhotic patients with gastric lesions.

1 May 1988

Yun‐Fan Liaw, Dar‐In Tai, Chia‐Ming Chu, Tong‐Jong Chen – 1 May 1988 – The incidence and contributing factors of cirrhosis developing in patients with chronic type B hepatitis were assessed prospectively in 684 clinicopathologically verified patients, of which 509 were HBeAg positive and 175 were anti‐HBe positive at entry into the study. During an average follow‐up period of 35.3 months, cirrhosis occurred 6 to 64 months after entry in 35 HBeAg‐positive and 7 anti‐HBe positive patients with a calculated annual incidence of 2.4 and 1.3%, respectively (p > 0.05).