The Italian Multicenter Project for Propranolol in Prevention of Bleeding – 1 January 1988 – To assess if propranolol prevents the first bleeding in cirrhosis, we randomly assigned 174 patients with large varices to either propranolol in doses reducing the resting heart rate by 25% (85 patients) or to a placebo (oral vitamin K, 89 patients). Sixty‐nine patients had alcoholic cirrhosis, 24 posthepatitic cirrhosis and 81 cryp‐togenic cirrhosis.

Mario Chojkier, David A. Brenner – 1 January 1988

M. Eric Gershwin, Ross L. Coppel, Ian R. Mackay – 1 January 1988

1 January 1988

J. Lacey Smith, David Y. Graham – 1 January 1988 – Variation in time of patient admission to studies of prognosis after variceal hemorrhage has been proposed as a major factor in the wide range of reported results. A study of 144 unselected subjects with a low initial mortality (3% at two days) suggests that the effect has been overemphasized and studies in which time of entry is later than the date of bleeding may be usefully compared. Reanalysis of previous work suggests that even in populations with a high initial mortality limited comparisons between studies can still be usefully made.

Peter V. Tishler – 1 January 1988 – Günther's disease, or congenital erythropoietic porphyria, is a rare autosomal recessive disorder of heme biosynthesis characteristically associated with diminished uroporphyrinogen III cosynthetase activity. Disfiguring photomutilation starts in childhood. Avoidance of sunlight has been the only sure way to prevent or retard photosensitivity. The treatments that have been tried have had limited success. A partial benefit after splenectomy has been reported, but there is little evidence of specific, long‐term improvement.

Dieter Haüssinger – 1 January 1988 – 1Rates of urea synthesis were determined in periportal and pericentral regions of the liver lobule in perfused liver from fed, phenobarbital‐treated rats by measuring the extra O2 consumed upon infusion of NH4Cl with miniature O2 electrodes and from decreases in NADPH fluorescence detected with micro‐light‐guides.2Urea synthesis by the perfused rat liver supplemented with lactate (5 mM), ornithine (2 mM) and methionine sulfoximine (0.15 mM), an inhibitor of glutamine synthetase, was stimulated by stepwise infusion of NH4Cl at doses ranging from 0.24 mM t

Bruce A. Runyon – 1 January 1988

Sien‐Sing Yang, Robin D. Hughes, Roger Williams – 1 January 1988 – The levels of endogenous serum digoxin‐like immunoreactive substances were investigated during development of encephalopathy in patients with fulminant hepatic failure. The 67 patients studied had varying degrees of hepatic failure as a result of viral hepatitis or paracetamol overdose. Serum levels of digoxin‐like immunoreactive substances were significantly increased in both viral hepatitis and paracetamol overdose, with mean values of 0.42 ± S.D.

Gaetanǒ Idéo, Giorgio Bellati, Edoardo Fesce, Daniela Grimoldi – 1 January 1988 – Propranolol has been reported to prevent the risk of hemorrhage in patients who survived episodes of variceal rupture. Since the first bleeding episode can be lethal, we did a prospective, randomized trial to see whether β‐blockers could also prevent the first hemorrhage.