1 March 1987

1 March 1987

Klemens B. Meyer, Jerome P. Kassirer – 1 March 1987 – Clinicians frequently perform tests to determine whether patients have liver metastases. Optimal use of a laboratory test requires that the clinician know the test's operating characteristics (its sensitivity and specificity) and have an estimate of the pretest probability that disease is present. We have surveyed studies that examined the value of four biochemical and three imaging tests in establishing a diagnosis of hepatic metastases in patients who underwent an invasive procedure to establish the presence or absence of disease.

Fenton Schaffner – 1 March 1987 – Clinicopathological features were studied in 41 patients with histology‐proven hepatocellular carcinoma without cirrhosis. Of these, 13 (31.7%) were positive for hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) and 28 were negative. Twenty‐six of 28 (92.9%) HBsAg negative cases had anticore antibody (anti‐HBc) of low titres. The age of patients at the time of diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma was significantly younger in the HBsAg positive cases compared with the negative.

John W. Suttie – 1 March 1987

Laurence M. Blendis, Robert H. Lund – 1 March 1987 – Peritoneovenous shunts (PVSs) have provided salutary effects on medically recalcitrant ascites, functional renal impairment, nutritional derangements, ventilatory embarrassment, and locomotion potential in patients with cirrhosis. While the LeVeen (LPVS) and Denver (DPVS) PVSs are most frequently implanted in such patients, postoperative complications of bleeding gastroesophageal varices, sepsis, and shunt occlusion occur with notable frequency.

Gerhard Jost, Axel Wahlländer, Ursula Von Mandach, Rudolf Preisig – 1 March 1987 – The feasibility of measuring caffeine clearance from saliva (SCI) was assessed in ambulatory patients with liver disease and in a control group, and the results were compared with quantitative liver function tests. For this purpose, the subjects were given 280 mg caffeine p.o. in decaffeinated coffee powder between noon and 4 p.m., and caffeine concentrations were measured in saliva (using an enzyme immunoassay) before bedtime and upon arising. In the cirrhotics (n = 29), SCI was 0.58 ± S.D.

David W. Heitman, Teri A. Frosto, Steven Schenker, George I. Henderson – 1 March 1987 – Previous studies have indicated that acute, and especially chronic, maternal ethanol consumption can depress placental uptake of various amino acids. Since the fetal cell itself represents a second barrier to nutrients, one which may be altered by ethanol exposure, the effects of ethanol on amino acid net uptake by rat fetal hepatocytes was addressed. The present study determined that ethanol stimulated amino acid net uptake by fetal hepatocytes grown in monolayer culture.

Yusei Ikeda, Gotaro Toda, Naoaki Hashimoto, Shin‐Ichi Aotsuka, Ryuichi Yokohari, Toshiyuki Maruyama, Hiroshi Oka – 1 March 1987 – An ELISA has been developed for detection of auto‐antibodiees against calmodulin. There was a significantly increased frequency (63.1%) of autoantibodies against calmodulin in 103 patients with chronic liver diseases as compared to that (30%) of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and to that (6.9%) of normal subjects (p < 0.01).

Manfred Alexander, Oscar W. Portman – 1 March 1987 – In the search for an animal model of genetic determinants of cholesterol cholelithiasis, we found strain, gender and individual differences in mice. Male black (C57BL6J) mice had a 50% incidence of cholesterol gallstones after they consumed lithogenic food similar to that used by Tepperman et al. for 2 weeks, whereas similarly treated male agouti (CBA/J) mice and females of both strains were free of gallstones.