Phillip H. Stoltenberg, Ronald D. Soltis – 1 January 1984 – Circulating immune complexes have been described in most liver diseases, including alcoholic liver disease, although their pathogenic significance remains unclear. Currently available immune complex assays do not distinguish immunoglobulin aggregates from antigen‐antibody complexes. Immunoglobulin aggregate formation occurs in vitro at 37°C in the presence of hypergammaglobulinemia and/or hypoalbuminemia, conditions common in liver disease.

Wolfgang Grauer, Norbert W. Brattig, Hans Schomerus, Gerd FrÖSner, Peter A. Berg – 1 January 1984 – Two immunosuppressive serum factors, serum inhibition factor (SIF) and rosette inhibitory factor (RIF), were studied in sera from patients with acute and chronic viral hepatitis. In a study of 30 patients with acute viral hepatitis, an association was found between RIF, SIF, and biochemical and virological parameters in 27 patients (90%), 25 of whom recovered completely; two had a protracted course. In three patients, the clinical course was not reflected by the immunosuppressive factors.

Roger Williams, A. E. S. Gimson – 1 January 1984 – Mortality of fulminant hepatic failure with standard supportive therapy is high (80 to 85%), but unfortunately most patients present to hospital already in Grade IV encephalopathy with severe liver dysfunction, and many have secondary organ damage. If seen earlier, during Grade III encephalopathy, recent experience with charcoal hemoperfusion can give good results (65% survival). Transplantation has a place in those patients who do not respond, and in cases with early Grade IV encephalopathy.

Michèle Corbic, Didier Lebrec, Michele Le Dafniet, Serge Erlinger – 1 January 1984 – Hepatic artery and portal vein blood flows were assessed separately in anesthetized rats using radiolabeled taurocholate. The ratio of portal vein blood flow to total hepatic blood flow was calculated from measurements of taurocholate concentrations of portal vein, hepatic artery and hepatic vein, and of taurocholate hepatic extraction ratio. Animals were administered [14C]taurocholate intraperitoneally as a label of the taurocholate pool 24 hr before the experiments.

Paul R. Harmatz, Ronald E. Kleinman, Bruce W. Bunnell, Daniel T. Mcclenathan, W. Allan Walker, Kurt J. Bloch – 1 January 1984 – The clearance of circulating IgA immune complexes following acute bile duct obstruction was investigated in this study. IgA immune complexes were formed in vitro from MOPC‐315, an IgA M‐component with anti‐dinitrophenyl (DNP) specificity, and 125I‐DNP10 bovine serum albumin (BSA). Eighteen hours after laparotomy during which the common bile duct was either identified only or identified and ligated, the IgA immune complexes were injected intravenously.

Okio Hino, Tomoyuki Kitagawa, Katsuro Koike, Midori Kobayashi, Mitsuru Hara, Wataru Mori, Toshiro Nakashima, Nobu Hattori, Haruo Sugano – 1 January 1984 – Hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and/or cirrhotic livers of Japanese patients in Japan was investigated by molecular hybridization utilizing a 32P‐labeled cloned HBV DNA of adr subtype. Among 24 HCC cases, 9 (37.5%) were positive for serum HBsAg and 10 (41.7%), including 2 cases which were negative for serum HBV markers, were positive for tissue HBsAg in noncancerous portions of the liver.

Kerry J. Breen, Ross W. Bury, Ian V. Calder, Paul V. Desmond, Marion Peters, M. Laurie Mashford – 1 January 1984 – Phenacetin, a high‐clearance drug, was labeled as [14C‐ethyl]phenacetin and used in a breath test of hepatic function. 14CO2 appeared rapidly in breath such that more than 30% of the administered radioactivity was expired in 2 hr. For all means of expression used to describe the appearance of 14CO2 in breath, normal controls and hospitalized patients without liver disease were clearly separated from cirrhotic subjects with moderate and severe liver damage.

Irmin Sternlieb – 1 January 1984 – The clinical course of certain patients with Wilson's disease resembles that of patients with viral or drug‐induced fulminant hepatitis lasting only few weeks from recognition of symptoms to severe hepatic insufficiency and death. The disease is complicated by hemolysis and is characterized by hypercupremia. Routine laboratory findings may underestimate the severity of the disease. These patients, as well as patients with decompensated Wilsonian cirrhosis who are not responding to therapy, should be considered as candidates for liver transplants.

1 January 1984

Robert A. Kane – 1 January 1984