K. H. Wiedmann, T. C. Bartholemew, D. J. C. Brown, Howard C. Thomas – 1 March 1984 – In this study, we describe a radioimmunoassay to detect liver membrane binding antibodies. The assay was designed to exclude binding of aggregated IgG or immune complexes to Fc 7 receptors of hepatocytes. When this assay was applied to sera from 142 patients, antibodies were found in highest titer in patients with autoimmune chronic active hepatitis, rarely in patients with hepatitis B virus‐induced chronic active liver disease, and in 32% of patients with primary biliary cirrhosis.

Masao Arai, Maria A. Leo, Masayuki Nakano, Ellen R. Gordon, Charles S. Lieber – 1 March 1984 – Baboons fed ethanol (50% of total calories) chronically develop ultrastructural alterations of hepatic mitochondria. To determine whether mitochondrial functions are also altered, mitochondria were isolated from nine baboons fed ethanol chronically and their pair‐fed controls. At the fatty liver stage, ADP‐stimulated respiration was depressed in ethanol‐fed baboons by 59.4% with glutamate, 43.2% with acetaldehyde, 45.1% with succinate and 51.1% with ascorbate as substrates.

A. Alberti, P. Pontisso, E. Schiavon, G. Realdi – 1 March 1984 – An antibody, which is distinct from the HBsAg, and reacts with antigenic sites on Dane particles HBcAg and HBeAg, was studied by radioimmunoprecipitation of radioactive intact hepatitis B virions in sera obtained early in the course of acute hepatitis type B. The antibody, previously termed anti‐Dane particle (anti‐DP) antibody, was reactive with Dane particles and HBsAg particles obtained from HBeAg‐positive sera but not with HBsAg particles from anti‐HBe containing sera.

1 March 1984

Hans Schomerus, Karl H. Wiedmann, Wolfgang Dölle, Herrmann Peerenboom, Georg Strohmeyer, Klaus Balzer, Harald Goebell, Hans K. Dürr, Christian Bode, André L. Blum, Gert Frösner, Wolfram Gerlich, Peter A. Berg, Klaus Dietz – 1 March 1984 – One‐hundred sixty patients (81 cyanidanol, 79 placebo) were included in a double‐blind placebo‐controlled clinical trial to evaluate the effect of 3 gm (+)‐cyanidanol‐3 per day for 8 weeks on the clinical course of acute viral hepatitis and HBsAg elimination. Quantitative determination of HBsAg was performed at frequent intervals.

Charles S. Davidson, William G. M. Hardison – 1 March 1984

Oscar W. Portman, Jayanta Roy Chowdhury, Namita Roy Chowdhury, Manfred Alexander, Charles E. Cornelius, Irwin M. Arias – 1 March 1984 – A Bolivian population of squirrel monkeys, Saimiri sciureus, exhibits several features of Gilbert's syndrome in man, and is proposed as a nonhuman primate model of the condition. The Bolivian population was found to have higher fasting (40.6 ± 2.7 μM; mean ± S.E.) and postcibal (9.9 ± 0.9 μM) plasma unconjugated bilirubin concentrations (p < 0.001) than a closely related Brazilian population (fasting 5.5 ± 0.7 μM); postcibal (2.4 ± 0.7 μM).

Eugene Roberts – 1 March 1984

Hyman J. Zimmerman, James H. Lewis, Kamal G. Ishak, Willis C. Maddrey – 1 March 1984 – Ticrynafen, a uricosuric diuretic, was withdrawn from clinical use in the United States in 1980 after having been implicated as the cause of a number of instances of serious hepatic injury. In this report, we analyze 340 cases of ticrynafen‐associated hepatic disease reported to the manufacturer from the time of initial marketing until shortly after the drug had been recalled. Jaundice was recorded in 246 of 287 patients with sufficient clinical information, and 25 (10.2%) of these icteric patients died.

Takeshi Okanoue, Isao Kondo, Thomas J. Ihrig, Samuel W. French – 1 March 1984 – In order to demonstrate the effect to the acute administration of ethanol and chlorpromazine (CPZ) on bile flow and transhepatic transport of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) into bile, male rats were administered either 5 gm per kg ethanol intragastrically (E‐rats) or 3 mg per kg CPZ intraperitoneally (CPZ rats). Control rats (C‐rats) received saline. Two hours after ethanol feeding or 90 min after CPZ injection HRP was injected into the portal vein, and bile samples were collected at 1 0‐min intervals for 2 hr.